I would say the flaw of focusing on the duel aspect is that the whole concept being proration/additions is to reflect how good the status is in game. It would be throwing out the most potent category in determination of effectiveness by far. MT isn't just good in and of itself, but it also helps when dealing with bad transparency issues or a low base hit rate. I could see making it less potent to match everything else, but disregarding it feels like it disregards the logic behind the +/- concept. None of these other categories directly increase hit rate or are necessarily DL relevant either.
Hmm, I could see reworking damage a bit, but like the above category, it feels pretty integral to worth of status. 55% Status attached to passable damage is much, much better than 55% status attached to no damage. Even if the status misses, you can still contribute directly by doing damage, which certainly makes the attack worth more. At least with damage there is already some DL credit though, so I don't feel so strongly about ignoring it like I do with MT.
I could see including a setup penalty certainly (although I don't think Luna should be hit with a penalty for both synergy and setup. If you have the setup, there is no synergy issues). Obviously, some status weapons probably wouldn't get a penalty because they'll be the best by default. I suppose any in game equip changing would also come into focus here. The one thing that might be balanced is that for some status weapons, there might be areas of the game where they are ideal even if they aren't the best at endgame (which I guess might mean a lower penalty). The question is what would you do with a game like Star Ocean 3?
