Y'know, it is kinda a fair point that it's a little odd to have ACN start with Emerald with the AoE attacks. This is sorta fine with the transition to SMN, Garuda kinda makes more sense as an AoE pet than Ifrit. But, starting out, would probably be more ideal to have more direct damage (slightly higher potency for single target attacks).

But, that was probably also sorta true since forever. Emerald has always upgraded to Garuda, so. Maybe I'm just making up problems here.