I think they should just have a guide at the beginning of any given Roleplay segment that gives a quick overview of what everything on your bar does, like it does with Thancred's segment in EW. For Alphinaud's segment, I eventually figured it out well enough that I cleared in 1 try, but I still wasn't 100% on what each heal ability exactly did.

I will say I do hope they lean into more difficult missions now that they've added difficulty options. I actually enjoyed that one mission in EW that's become rather divisive. It wasn't perfect (stealth would be better if enemies could actually deagro when you get caught if you run away), but the relatively higher difficulty fit the narrative beat perfectly. So I say have normal difficulty have some actual challenge to it, and then have the easier difficulties for those who just wanna see the story.