Oh no, not the Great Crystal again

Recently I've been working my way through a bunch of side quests that I missed in Final Fantasy XII. Sadly I could not obtain the Zodiac Spear, but I'm not terribly distressed about that. I just don't understand why they set it up the way they did. If you leave certain treasure chests unopened, you can obtain the spear later in-game. I'm confused. This IS Final Fantasy, right? Finding treasures was half the fun in previous installments. Who would have the mind to leave very specific chests unopened when they come across them?

That aside, yesterday I figured out that I would have to return to the Great Crystal for two reasons: 1) to obtain the Excalibur and 2) to hunt down a rare monster. As you might expect, I'm not terribly excited about this prospect.

I really felt that the Great Crystal was the most annoying and poorly designed area of the game. For one thing, it's really hard to navigate. The game doesn't even give you a map, so you have to go online to find one. Oh, and did I mention that this area is huge? You're not going to have much luck navigating this piece of work unless you've got a map; and even then it's a nightmare.

Secondly - I could be mistaken on this point - there's no easy way in to the Great Crystal. You pretty much have to make your way through Giruvegan all over again. Tell me if I'm wrong on this point, because I'd like to know if there indeed is an easier way in. In other words, you're pretty much hooped if you don't do everything you need to do the first time around. And really, who would think to fight an Esper, find one of the best weapons in the game, battle a rare monster, and then get out (actually, there's probably more to do there). That's a laundry list of problems for such a poorly designed area.

If you enjoyed playing the Great Crystal, tell me your reasons. Maybe it's just that I'm not a masochist, so I don't get much joy out of it.