Small laptop: I played it almost exclusively keyboard with some mouse. The devs have patched more UI things in later after I had played as they tried to ensure parity between the different UI schemes.

Growth: If you've played FFT, growth is like that. I don't think it's random though; it's fixed based on what character you are.

Respec: (story characters, each of which has one unique class) no. Otherwise, just recruit a new character. EDIT: I forgot, you can reset your level (including stat growth) to zero while retaining your class/job experience.

Monsters: I haven't played the DLC yet, obviously, but the existing character that got monster jobs was immensely useful, especially since he could basically be two monsters at once.

Base game: I don't know how it's done with the DLC, but the devs have been very vocal that the DLC is best experienced with a fresh, brand new save. That sounds like it's integrated.

Balance: Quite balanced, but not perfect. But the "generics" each have a set of classes that only they (and NOT story characters) can be, too! There are definitely overpowered combinations available in the game, but nothing stood out as instantly "OMG!" like Orlandu or Balthier.

Difficulty: There were two points when I played through the game the first time where I felt there was a big jump in difficulty (and they were all-party scenarios). I remember seeing them mentioned in patch notes as having been adjusted; I haven't yet replayed.

If note to you [specifically, dtgreene], the game has AWESOME NG+ and difficulty settings; very granular in both, and can be changed at any time. Also, sadly, there is one gender-specific class for each of male and female. And, yes, the female one is typecast as caster and male one as physical. Neither are particularly outstanding or useless though; both have good passives to learn.

Link found to difficulty settings screen: https://lpix.org/3535562/20190831210157_1.jpg