I dun remember 6 having a very episodic feel to it? 4 & 9 for sure did though. All of which I found wayyyyy better than 7.
I found the Cauldron of Knowledge an then ya know plot stuff happened. Now I gotta "get better at alchemy" to continue. Which was okay progression style for like the first 20 hours but not when I'm looking at near/end game in the face. Having ta go through some annoying to crazy steps just to think up new recipes bites at this point an doubly so when you're to low level to make the items anyhow! I know if ya have the materials you can make 'em anyway but that feels like a waste.
Also the issue of not having the ingredients because I've been playing on easy/normal unknowingly being locked outta monster drops. The thought of jacking the difficulty up hurts cause I've tried it an gotten slaughtered so I'd be sent back to remaking full new sets of weapons/armor/accessories. Which I dunno what attributes or things to make 'em with would be cause there are no faqs for the game an painfully lil available info ta dig up in the first place. -_-;
I think you're misunderstand a couple things here. Alchemy level is not a requirement for crafting. You can synthesize a Lvl. 30 item at Lvl. 1 just fine. It only effects the quality of the item, i.e synthesizing an item over your level will make it have bad quality - which is
completely inconsequential for story items. It's also not required to unlock the entire recipe-book in order to finish the game.
Also, the game does not lock you out of things based on difficulty or progress. I've 100%ed the entire game on normal without issues. Honestly, as soon as you make an insta-kill bomb and duplicate it a few times in the duplicate shop you're cruising through the entire thing anyway outside of bosses and some immune monsters.
The in-game encyclopedia is chock-full with useful information and there are a couple 'best traits' guides floating around in the net if you need more help.
The game really isn't that difficult or grindy.
Of course, a lot of your enjoyment is going to depend on how much you like synthesis and optimizing things.