Assuming a "normal" party, like I have, you would never save after death, disease, draining has occured. Dead characters don't get any experience from the battle, and if you allow Crock to kidnap one of your characters, it's basically the same thing (whack Crock after getting your best items). Don't save if any of your characters are Dead, Diseased, or Drained.

Unlike most weapon types, the Staff and Wand weapons are available to everybody, including the Staff of Doom. This makes them similar to the FF1 Masamune, as even casters can do good melee damage. Unlike FF1, there is one guaranteed SoD, and many more farmable SoDs.

The Giant's Sword (Mook only), is racial-dependent, and it ignores that Humans have a way better stat sum. It's apples and oranges.

The SoD doesn't out-damage other weapons, but it gives casters good melee damage.

I disagree.
* Death is only a problem for XP distribution if the battle ends while the character is dead. If the condition is cured before the battle is over, or the death happens outside of battle, then removing it isn't a problem. Also, if the character who died is a fast leveler (like the Bard or Gadgeteer in a "traditional" MDP, or the Fighter in a party where everyone else is a caster or hybrid), then the different distribution of XP isn't so bad.
* Disease is only a problem if it permanently lowers a stat before you cure it. As long as you pay attention to end-of-round messages and cure it with a potion or spell immediately once the battle is over, it's not a problem.
* Draining is only a problem if you level up while drained. With good Alchemy, curing it is not a problem, and even failing that, there's the option I mentioned of taking advantage of death's bad status removal. (Note that death doesn't remove good statuses; a character who dies while under Guardian Angel (possible via instant death magic) will still be protected if revived before it wears off.)
* I don't like killing merchant NPCs, particularly those that sell useful items like Crock. Hence, I prefer using an exploit to avoid the kidnapping rather than killing him.
* Don't forget, assuming you're not playing Ironman, that you can choose to save in a different slot and still have the old save to revert to if necessary.

FF1 does have the guaranteed Masamune (though saving your game after obtaining it is only possible if you have teleportation magic), however. FF2 has the guaranteed Masamune, and the possibility of getting more to drop; even better, there's no finite limit on the number of attempts at getting the drop you get, allowing you to farm as many as you want without having to reload when you don't get the drop.

Also, not all Staff & Wand weapons are available to all. Fairy Stick and Rod of Sprites are race restricted, Zatoichi Bo is class restricted, and Cane of Corpus is both. All of those except the Fairy Stick are quite strong, and even the Fairy Stick has a 50% sleep chance at a point in the game where your weapon options are still limited.

Human stat sum isn't "way better"; it's only 15 points (= 2.5 levels worth) better, and some of those stat points go to less useful stats like Piety.

I think you're overstating the stat sum advantage that Humans get. It's nice, but it doesn't make them the absolute best race.

Perhaps I was wrong about the Human vs Mook Ranger:

Humans start with 45 to all attributes, with a stat sum of 315.

Mook have: 50 Strength, 50 Intelligence, 25 Piety, 50 Vitality, 35 Dexterity, 35 Speed, and 55 Senses (for a stat sum of 300).

Rangers have profession requirements of: 50 Strength, 50 Intelligence, 50 Vitality, 55 Dexterity, and 55 Senses.

This gives the Human -35 points to meet profession requirements, of a max of 60 points, resulting in 25 points to distribute upon character creation.

The Mook would have -20 points to meet profession requirements, resulting in 40 points to distribute at character creation.

Summing these available points, to max the 4 most important attributes (Strength, Dexterity, Speed, and Senses):

The Human would have 50+55+45+55+25=230 points.

The Mook would have 50+55+35+55+40=235 points.

The Mook Ranger would (slightly) beat the Human Ranger in maxing the first 4 attributes (also would wind up with the Giant's Sword), at the cost of terrible Piety (less Stamina and Spell points).

i like a Dracon priest on level 1 then change to valkyrie for the rest of the game... this lady is my main tank with full Pie its almost impossible to kill her