I'd actually give Lucca the second most respect behind Magus and well ahead of Crono (honestly I'd put Crono a bit below Frog too but yeah) but yeah I think I'm in the minority there. Her magic always seemed the most visually impressive, aside from Crono, but unlike Crono actually has the stats to back it up (magic typically = INT so I mean don't get the reason why people would deny her magic as being good).
Her gun is completely whatever though and would get less respect from me than most ranged weapons.
Anyway I wouldn't actually put Crono as a 2 since I think that introduces a bit of a mental bias against him among the players (and he really doesn't need that), but I would make his abilities good because yeah he's a pretty weak 3 all things considered. Game doesn't really give you any reason to believe he's all that aside from main character syndrome. His techs are not very impressive looking, he gets no real significant plot upgrade over the course of the game that the other characters don't get, and he's just some kid who fights with a mop before that. His claim to fame is he's the fastest among the cast but Ayla is his only real competition there in the sense that you could maybe buy they're fast.
Also Mercenaries 2 had a bunch of broken options too. 4 upkeep Sol Badguy no thanks. Limit it to Mercs 3 and Mercs 4 and it's probably fine but at that point you've perhaps removed most of the fun.
I mean you can say all this, but.... the party still beat Lavos in the end. Without any outside assistance. How do you reconcile that? ---
It's like paying for bubble wrap. -transience on Final Fantasy: All the Bravest