Yeah you're probably not far wrong. I don't think the dev's hypocrisy nor that sage features in most of the ff games I'm familiar with as the pinnacle of magic helped in the slightest.

If it has to stay as it is a way of spreading kardia to the party would be good, and a guaranteed crit ruin 2 to get bigger kardia heals but not be spammed all the time (assuming it works the same way as nascent flash). Haima and panhaima seem very samey, maybe one could be the dark arts eukrasian version of the other to free up a keybind?