So after writing my big post I decided to take a closer look at the credits for the Final Fantasy games over the years to pinpoint just who the talents and the people who ruined it actually are, and it turns out the Wikipedia credits aren't to be trusted and I've actually been wrong about a lot of things all these years, and I think now I have a good idea of who the key names to look out for actually are for better or for worse. If you share any of my opinions about Final Fantasy you'll probably want to take note of this. If any of these people are directors, or involved in scenario or events, it's a good or bad sign, and this is of course my own personal opinion, but one name in particular could spell hope for the future of Final Fantasy:

SpoilerThe Goods:

Hironobu Sakaguchi - Original creator, his FF games started off simplistic, but after he started working with Kitase and Ito he upped his story game, no longer works with Square, now director of Mistwalker, but they've stopped making classic JRPGs.

Yoshinori Kitase - Directed FF6, FF7 and FF8, co-writer for FF5 (IMO the first really good one) and writer and event director for FF6. Was promoted to producer so now probably has little creative input. If he's ever listed as a director and writer, though is unlikely since producer is a higher position, this would be a VERY GOOD sign.

Hiroki Chiba - Event planner for FF7, 8, 9 and 10, and co-writer for FF8. I think this is /myguy/. Event & scenario director for Dirge of Cerberus. Lead writer of Type-0, which I've barely played, need to give another try knowing this. Game director for World of Final Fantasy, whose story people are praising, I haven't played. People seem hopeful he might direct a future numbered Final Fantasy game since he did so for WoFF. With what he did for 7-9, this could be a second wind for Final Fantasy if it happens?

Hiroyuki Ito - Directed FF6 and FF9 and designed gameplay for all pre-10 games. IS also named as director and designer of FF12, but ya boy Silent Gamer confirms he was a late addition, replacing the prior director/designer Matsuno for health reasons. So he probably wasn't responsible for the state of FF12.

The Bads:

Yasumi Matsuno - Original director and also writer of FF12. Also directed, wrote and designed the battle system for Vagrant Story, which explains why I don't like that game. Also directed and wrote Tactics, I haven't played that. Basically, he seemed to make sure his games didn't have traditional combat.

Mamoru Toriyama - Director of FFX-2 and FF13, but was also event planner for FF7 and event director & co-scenario writer of FF10. 7's quality may have had more to do with Chiba and Kitase? And 10 also had Chiba working for him.

Daisuke Watanabe - Lead scenario writer for the FF13 trilogy, scenario writer for FFX-2, FF12 and Dissidia. Was a scenario planner for FF10, though.

Tetsuya Nomura - Directed Advent Children and Kingdom Hearts with its awful FF character representations. Directing the FF7 Remake.

Kazushige Nojima - Co-writer for FFX-2, concept writer for FF13, and sole writer for Advent Children and for KH1 and 2 with its awful FF character representations. Did also co-write 7, 8 and 9, but seems plausible we can choc their quality to his co-writers.
*Possible* that his influence over the state of these games was small though, as he could have been told to write what he wrote. Writing for the FF7 Remake.