They do! To make sure their psychologically unstable enough to be trained as special forces.

Glad to hear Cuba is still based.

You’re not entirely wrong but the Pal system itself has a good amount of depth - Pals have traits and skills, and are weaker or stronger against different other types of Pals, so you can be very clever about what skills you teach them and what fights/environments you take them into. The game can get very easy if you exploit this system properly but is quite challenging if you ignore Pal stats and just grind levels and gear.