Is this series any good

By all means, go ahead. I went into 5 completely blind and went with what felt best at the time.

>this is primarily an issue because I'm an autist when it comes to exp distribution
Im exactly the same. I let one character die and not gain xp if theyre too far ahead of the group and its also why I havent reclassed or added new classes yet.

I'm so bad that I basically treat the death as a restart, because there's no point in continuing the battle(s) since one person will be behind. It's also not worth running out of the stratum, staying at the inn, wasting gold (and time) just to start again.
I don't even bother with letting anyone get ahead or anything. If they're even 1 xp off I get stupidly OCD over it.

To be fair, both have their roots in DnD, FFI was basically a JRPG DnD.

Eh, not really. FF, if anything, stripped out the more AD&D-esque aspects of Wizardry, like lockpicking, traps, and large groups of monsters.

>one hit by the weakest shit.
I felt this is only true for like the first stratum. Then again I had both a Necro and a Dragoon so I could divert damage quite well.

>How do strong team / not dying fast and simple?
Depends on who're you using. I found out myself that in the case. Pick like 3 or 4 classes you want to use an make pick the last one to synergyze everything. Since you get quite the good experience playing the game before you get master classes you'll get a good idea of what you want in your team.

the god damn Rover passsive healing is so powerful for grinding.

I'm playing EO3 blind and it's my first game in the series
Please teach me how to party composition, I've made it to the second stratum but I'm spooked that I might be a complete fuckup. I'm running Prince-Hoplite-Gladiator in the first row, and Monk-Zodiac in the back.
Was going full sword for the gladiator a mistake? Now that I've tried it a bit it's kinda underwhelming with the amount of TP they chug.

Endless amounts of fan made porn.

Party looks fine on first glance. It's all about the skills you put on them from here. You can always rest the character if what you're going for seems underwhelming like your sword glad, 5 levels sounds like a lot but it really isn't if what you're getting out of it is a more efficient character.