To be clear, the items DO have a purpose: the health ones allow you to heal in combat if you screw up, and the energy ones allow you to top off energy going into a fight so you don't waste time on the focus move right away. But yes, overall it is pretty straightforward if you've ever played an RPG before. While generally you just steamroll with the special and the recharge (focus), there are situations where regular attack is useful, as you mentioned, because it hits faster and doesn't need to be recharged. There's a fun dynamic between the special, regular and the recharge because of that, and I'm playing around with it a bit more in 2 as I work on the new battle system. Still won't be super complex, but should have a LITTLE more depth to it than currently.
Also to be fair, keep in mind that depending on how far back you go, you may be reading comments from before the game was balanced the way it currently is (although it was actually EASIER at first, so I suppose that doesn't really hold).
"I was using block only at Boss." I'll have to check this at some point. I can't remember now if my original intention was to make it impossible to win the boss fight without the special dodge, or just a huge pain. Also if you were hoarding healing items until the boss, that probably helped a lot.