From Matsui-san...
The reason that physical level is being "abolished" is because the physical level abilities were making balancing content based upon class rank difficult. The different between a rank 1 level 1 vs a rank 1 level 50 was very large, even with the rank caps and limits. It seems to me that any concept that revolves around changing combat balance via physical level is doomed, unless the effect is so minor that it's not worth implementing.
To that end, I'd suggest non-combat attributes such as:
- Small movement speed increase when in passive mode
- Increased HP/MP regeneration mode when sitting
- Use physical level together with class rank to unlock jobs.
- Unlocking of additional emote commands
These are a few I've thought of. Key criteria is that they don't effect the combat, keeping it easy for Matsui-san to balance the new battle system. A lot is riding on this battle system, and anything that increases the risk of breaking it should be delayed, imho.