I always found Amarant to be extremely useful. Only falls behind if you're stopping to grind out, which you don't really need to in 9. But I'm no 9 know it all though. Throw deals full damage from the back row. Was it quadruple or double on flying foes? *shrug* No delay on it either compared to things like Jump.
The ATB in 9 drives me insane. It's much slower than all prior entries, even with haste it's barely tolerable. Freezes during animations and crap. It's one of the reasons I've only replayed 9 a few times.