Is it still a good hack..?

Personally, I feel like the things you mentioned are icing on the delicious hacking cake. If the hack has good gameplay or a different purpose (like Easytype) I'd still consider it a good hack because the core elements are there. If somebody can do it all, that's even more awesome, but I for one wouldn't expect it...

This is my overall thinking too as well.

Every hack that I could find thats been made for FF3/6 I have played there are some that I didn't care for not because it was to close to the original core game but because it felt like someone didn't put what they wanted into it. I think thats what REALLY makes a good hack is when you can tell the hackers style from playing it. There are a lot of greatly skilled hackers/modders on this site. Like I said though I played a version of FF3 that the only change was that one character was different and a little of the dialog changed and enjoyed it a lot.

Guess it also would depend on the person playing it as much as the person who hacks it also too? I definitely agree with the hacker's style comment, for instance you can really see my style when you play Mystic Quest Reborn, FF3usHT and FF2usHT. I put my heart and soul (and years of my life!) in to those 3 hacks.

I think JCE3000GT that all the changes you've mentioned are great additions to a unique hack but as it was said before, a hack too close to the original game would probably stop me to play it, which it would probably not be the case if it was my first time playing it.

So just an in-depth change in dialogue text and characters would be preferable over say a little change in all the other categories? Or would something like a dialogue rewrite, character role change and some misc other item/spell/text changes prove to be "a better" hack over a hack that just changes a category or two alone? (ie graphics/characters)

What push me toward a FF3us hack is an increased difficulty, some new events and changes to the gameplay (ex: battle system, esper system). I'm really annoyed by grammatical errors and badly draw sprites.

Agreed on the crummy graphics and stupid dialogue mistakes.

For the rest, things like new maps or new music are nice additions. With the documentation and tools available I expect a lot from a FF3us hack to be called a "complete" hack. But the definition of a "good" hack vary from a person to another and depends on elements like how much you played the game, how close to the original is the hack and how difficult it is. You can't please everyone in the end.

So what you're saying here is the label put on the hack "complete" or "improvement" as it were is a better indication on what to expect from the level of changes made to the game?