Thanks Berry.
There's some great insight here, and it actually reminded me that I mis-read of the lines immediately before the final stretch (where it says you can take all 6 members) as something more akin to FFX where you could mid-battle switch. Sucks to hear of the bug with VS Party swapping and how that impacted the game; I do appreciate knowing a little bit behind the scenes in that regard.
And yeah, technical issues of all sorts are "real" and I totally get it :)
Truth be told, I started my playthrough a week ago and only got a couple battles in before getting overwhelmed; had to pick it back up after a palate cleanser of sorts, but very glad I did.