I think gumi missed an opportunity here to create "non-combat" focused characters

But, why would we need it?

To start off, Helena is from JP. In JP, they don't have the same expeditions as we have. I know "GL is a different game", as some will argue, but if they were to implement this, I'd rather see it on a GL exclusive, not change our expectations.

Also, having the decision of "it should be Helena" being influenced by the fact that "her combat set will never be competitive", they can't start to admit that units are so much worse than others - although it's not done well, it's quite professional for a mind-set of "every unit is viable, just in different ways" should be kept. (Again, I'm not saying that units are equal. I'm just saying that Gumi shouldn't admit that some are worthless.)

I'm rather happy with the rate of expeditions as it is. They're more rewarding than I would have ever expected them to be, it's already making Ability Awakening a walk-in-the-park, and that's not even considering that fact that with respect to JP, we're getting some units with decreased Cryst counts.

Creative idea, but "they missed the opportunity" - I don't mind that they did miss it. I don't think it would add anything actually valuable to the table.