Unfortunately, it's difficult to check the height of those encounter events. I'd need to go back and do a lot of reworking to get all of them.
The World Map sample data for the region where the Merchant is appears to be correct- you might have just gotten lucky. That said, I will test the variable updates, just to be sure.
It looks like the Brain is bugged- I used the wrong syntax for the AI and it'll keep checking for a state it doesn't have instead of Block. I'll fix this soon.
I'll look into the Evade/Soften issue as well. I set it to apply on a "Before Eval" so that it would apply the Soften debuff to the damage; however, I could include a check on these Evals so that it doesn't apply if the attack's going to be dodged. That said, evasion is a rare mechanic; it shouldn't affect much.
This all shouldn't be too long to fix; I could probably have a patch out within the week.
EDIT: Okay, I'm definitely going to have to release a fix because I ran into a very major bug with a Medal the new update introduced. It's pretty late in the game, but if you find the "Friend Defender" Medal, don't equip it without a temporary ally until I have a hotfix out. (Fortunately, the medal explicitly is only useful if you have a temporary ally!)