Obviously everybody has their own opinion on what's fun and what's a challenge. For me, every time I play a Kingdom Hearts game I have fun. Regardless of what difficulty I play on or what parameters I set for myself, I always have fun. I found being forced in to 0.2's parameters on Critical mode to be immensely fun because
it was actually challenging. I always thought Critical in the other games wasn't too difficult until you got to secret bosses, when I really had to think about what I had equipped, my abilities etc. Whereas I felt a little more on edge the entire time in 0.2 Critical because I lacked the usual things I would rely on by that point. It felt like I truly accomplished something every time I got through a section. It was awesome. But of course, different strokes for different folks.
I also feel that you're being overly harsh on the balancing of BBS and DDD's Critical modes. I feel like the reason they don't give you a tangible buff at the start of those games is because of the potential for you to buff yourself. In BBS, with a bit of grinding you could easily get some powerful commands with awesome abilities through melding. In DDD you had the new game plus feature to bring over your dream eaters. Even though their level gets reset, it gives you the potential to get great abilities and commands far earlier. Even without these features, I feel that the base combat options of each game makes Critical mode challenging enough to enjoy without causing much frustration.
This is all my opinion on a very subjective topic, but I wanted people to understand why some people would defend these things.
