Although they are helpful for items and money etc, I CANNOT stand them

I prefer them. If i can see the enemy im always too tempted to avoid them, so i never level up enough.

With random encounters your forced to battle, so you should generally level up enough in each area.

Not really. But sometimes it become annoying and wasting time when you has to fight with low level monster. This is reason why i like FFXII more than any other FF except FFVII.

I don't mind actually. If it is properly executed. Especially if the game is freaking awesome.

random encounter are most awful when they happen in an area where you are puzzle solving.

I hate random encounters when I'm trying to get somewhere ("There's the treasure chest. I wonder what's inside" *random battle* "Fuck!") or if there's a mind bending puzzle and they throw off my train of thought (wich way was I coming from, now?). I think random encounters are best left in "dungeons" or "fields" .

I don't get why they use them.

It's not hard to have random monsters appear on the map to start the "random econouters".

A game like Pokemon... it makes sense. Howevery why they didn't make the PS1 and FF10 FF's like Chrono Trigger or even 7thSaga I don't know.

Same with any RPG really. It's not hard to just poof monsters on the map and have them chase you.

Sometimes.

Sometimes I just want to get where I need to go without the screen smashing every 5 seconds. Sometimes I don't want to waste all my potions/phoenix downs. Sometimes I'll see a treasure chest in the corner of the screen and think, "Fuck. That's like 15 random battles away."

They discourage exploration and cause you to rush through areas. They suck.

Pokemon got it right, like others said.

The random encounters in the temple of enlightenment from lost odyssey were a pain in the bum at first although they became useful after a while for (over) levelling my team, especially fighting the dark kelolons over level 70 :)