I think my favorite thing with the racing AI is their struggle against floating chests. They jump for chests and aren't awarded items sometimes. There is at least 1 chest on Sagolii Road (earlier ratings) they get shafted 100% of the time. Sure, their use of Steal and Reflect can be borderline cheating, but they also suck at avoiding hazards.

The random stat distribution, on level up, is rather annoying, but I can't really complain. Getting that perfect chocobo with 4 stats capped at 500/500 certainly takes a serious RNG roll. However, getting that perfect stat roll in one try would probably devalue the experience.