Checked my first-cycle endgame file a few days ago. I'd managed to get eight squads with nine PCs each but landing a nine-PC room for the ninth squad was apparently just too much of a bitch. Think I had...six room locks? Something like that. Seconding Tal on money for deployment not remotely being an issue (and I probably did the least grinding out of anyone here.)
Anyway, no one's taking on the final boss without killing his support first. You'd have to be grotesquely overlevelled to get away with this and I think it's pretty clear that this isn't what the programmers had in mind. Take him at whatever his level is without the boosts.
Full party smaaaash is also how I dealt with him, for what that's worth.
EDIT: Also, I didn't have specific units set up for healing. I just stuck a cleric in the back row of every party. Was usually good enough.
