What does it steal from Fire Emblem?  They're the same genre but they're both quite a lot more different then Final Fantasy Tactics is from Tactics Ogre.  Which used pretty much the same development team but bought off to Square.

It was completely intentional.  It's not the difference in say how a Final Fantasty game would be similar to a lufia game.  It was the difference between a Final Fantasy game, and the Final Fantasy games sequel. 

Final Fantasy Tactics was practically a sequel to Tatics Ogre with the FF5 job system thrown in.  That doesn't make it a bad game, but considering the story was worse and the gameplay balance was off (even in the original version) it deserves the 8 it's got. 

I have noticed this with several PSP games and I have to say... it's f***ing annoying. Even MegaMan does this and I love the game... I just wish it wouldn't freakin' slow down EVERY time there are more than 4 enemies on the screen.

I'm starting to wonder if it's a PSP hardware problem.

Not that Final Fantasy Tactics has a horrible story. However it's not quite the same as being part of an ethnic minority that's been enslaved and forced to work in death camps, and being given the chance of leading a political revolution to save your people but in doing so possibily having to do the unthinkable.

It had 3 different paths you could take, and even if you took what most would see as the "evil" route they always treated you as the heroes at some point.

Not to mention having to deal with your nation just being a pawn between two larger countries who are at a standoff. As far as games go Tactics Ogre: Let us Cling Together is probably the best game that tackles the old "Do the ends justify the means" Storyline wise in my opinion. The best part about it that they don't tell you if the ends justify the means. You tell them. By the way you play.

I haven't seen a strategy RPG with nearly the amount of story this one has, and i've pretty much played them all.

FFT will never get the "respect" you ask for.
The reason is simple actually: good T-RPG are even more hardcore than RPG. The good ones have amazing stories involving politics, feelings, society, religion, and to add insult to injury, they require thinking about a LOT of things to be beaten, or in other words, tactics. The best T-RPG have as good and "complicated" (developed) stories as the best Gundam stories from Sunrise.
So a lot of people hate them, because you have to use your brains heavily to make each move, evaluate each situation. That's what I love about them, but that's also why T-RPG usually get far poorer sales than other kind of RPG.
FFT actually sold extremely well for a T-RPG, and yes it was amazing, with an amazing story.
I bought it twice too, one in original japanese, and the other in US version (played both with my modded european PS1) because you could get more things from this US version (or I would never have bought a US version).
People already find that RPG requires too much using of brains. You can see that as soon as they complain about text to read, and prefer voice over. T-RPG are even worse (better for me) in that, so no wonder they don't get the best of scores by reviewers or the best of sales.
So you're right that as the new PSP remake has voice over and is made easier, it should get better score, just because it force you to get your brains less.
Fire Emblem has the same problem, even worse. You'll see that versions outside of Japan don't even get the harder difficulty, like people outside of Japan are more stupid. I can't blame them though, as people were already saying that FE is too hard on the normal difficulty level ...
Traditional RPG have the same problem too, as people say they have too much text. It's like gamers are morons that can never read books. That's also why people say Zelda is a RPG: they see lots of text, and as they can't read (or so it seems), they associate that to RPG, as it's as tedious to them.

Actually I don't care, as long as we get good T-RPG, I'm fine. The problem is that sales are important for we to continue getting T-RPG.

For the record i'd put Final Fantasy Tactics 3rd as far as Strategy RPGS i've played behind

1. Tactics Ogre

2. Front Mission 3 - Once again... a better story full of political intrigue. The customization of making your own mechs out of the available parts is fun. Though it could really use a beefining up in the challenge department.

While FE may have done that, the "Japanese love hard games" is a myth. Westerners like harder games than the Japanese and both Konami and Capcom are on record for saying it. Both have dumbed down their games for the Japanese audiences while they released incredibly hard bosses for the Western audience.

After all, didn't you wonder why there were no colored "Weapon" bosses in the Japanese version of FFVII? The Japanese playtesters thought they were too hard and Square killed them from the original JP release, only to bring them back for the Western releases.

This is a myth that has been out there since I started playing games. Only since the internet have I seen that is completely false. The Japanese HATE dying in games and, as a consequence, their games are made easier. Westerners, for some reason, love to die and do it again until they triumph.

Like in MGS2 that had the extra european extreme difficulty. (vamp pissed me off on that mode!)

I allways thaught that the Japanese gamers loved the hard nuts :? Anyways , the game will do well , but not stellar . Maybe 8ook worldwode lifetime but not more IMO .