I thought the combat was slow during 1.0 as well, but once you put the fact, that there is no PvP out of your mind, it makes sense. Kind of a middle point to the turn based FF3 kind of gameplay, where your decisions actually make sense during an encounter. They probably will never have PvP since no FF game has ever had PvP to my knowledge, so... it should all be good. Different game-play style = good.
The class specialization comes to the point where, you spend the time to do what you feel you want to do. You are not a special snowflake. Anyone can attain what they want if they put the time/effort into it. I realize there isn't a "customization" aspect of the game that rivals any other game in the way of "talent trees".
But if you look at it, the game is about having fun. It is not a game to hit end-game and win. It is kind of a throwback to the old school games, where you can obtain anything you want if you work long and hard enough at it.
Sure, someone is going to be a tank/dps/healer tri-spec god. But the person that can do all of the class combinations is going to rule. Put the time and effort into getting high-level in all of the jobs, and you will be over and above all others. But it's going to take you a while to do it