>Game actively lies to you about what he's good at
>Presents him as a Sabin-type martial artist with super strength, when he's statistically the party's mage
>Magic is obtained by essentially capturing Pokemon
>It's random whether you'll learn a spell by beating an enemy, and Gala's physical abilities are so bad that he has a hard time doing so

It takes a lot of time and effort to make Gala good. If the game didn't force you to use him, I doubt anyone would take him off the bench.