IR/touch screen and regular controls are all in competition.  The player will use fastest/best one.  In my experience with the DS, it's almost always easier to still use the d-pad and buttons vs the touch screen when you have the choice.  The IR pointer of the Wii isn't nearly as quick as the DS stylus so it's in an even worse position than the DS vs regular controls.

Forging weapons really didn't enhance the game.  Either you could forge something at better cost than what you could buy and use that or you could buy cheaper than the cost of forging.  You could forge some really nice stuff but that was costly and if you give the player too much money then you're sort of imbalancing the game already.  The coins were the solution to that.  The goal was for the player to forge a few pretty nice weapons at in low cost so the developers didn't add too much money.

Character creation could be interesting but when would you use it?  Part of the essence of Fire Emblem is having a lot of unique characters interacting versus having generic "everyman" type characters.  I think that's one of the disappointments of Radiant Dawn--generic supports that didn't really do much to develop the characters.  It's also why I put the GBA Fire Emblems above it.

Oh okay.

Here I though Path of Radiance was the harder one of the two....

Best Fire Emblem as a single game is probably Blazing Sword, called Fire Emblem in the west.

Hector rules.

Personally, I find Radiant Dawn to be incredibly much better. The game is pretty much superior in every way. It lacks supports, but the "info" more than makes up for it. You could also argue that this makes the characters somewhat less interesting, but that's pretty much it.

Still, FE7 probably gets a good second, and is still one of my top 3 favourite handheld games ever.

Maybe, but if you wanted you could use basically any character in Fire Emblem - Radiant Dawn also made this possible, but it was harder. It felt more limited, like there were fewer legitimately wise choices to be made.

I have to admit, though, that supports are a big part of that. In general gameplay and music and other things, I admit that Radiant Dawn stomps on Fire Emblem.

Huh, I always felt that was one of the major changes in Radiant Dawn - that all units turn out well.

Also, FE7 became ridiculously easy toward the end, whereas Radiant Dawn has a simply brilliant Endgame. Heck, it may be my favourite ending-series in any game.

That is very fair. Part of it may just be that Blazing Sword was my first Fire Emblem.

Supports are very important to me.  They're basically the only reason I replay Fire Emblem games.  I have a near perfect support record on FE7 because I loved replaying it to see more supports (Farina probably had some of my favorites).  Radiant Dawn putting in generic supports basically killed a fairly large portion of the game I enjoy.

I also wasn't as big of a fan of the RD soundtrack.  Compared to other Fire Emblem games, Radiant Dawn actually has one of the weakest soundtracks around.

I am forced to respectfully disagree.

Somehow I knew you would.