Final Fantasy IV the After Years/Headscratchers

Cecil's father supposedly gave up his own existence in order to make Cecil a paladin in Final Fantasy IV. So how is it he's still around and can test Kain and turn him into a Holy Dragoon?
- In Porom's Tale, he outright tells her that his spirit will never be extinguished.
  - Which elevates it from Plot Hole to either Retcon or Ass Pull.
    - What's really odd is that he says "I am about to fade, but my spirit will never be extinguished." Which is just, I'm not sure...
When Yang investigates the meteor site near Mount Hobs, he can get all the treasure chests there, of course. But how can he, when you come there earlier as Gekkou and can clear it out before Yang could have possibly gone there?
- That happens a lot. How many differenct characters climb Mt. Hobbs and empty the chests? And yet they're full each time. My WMG? There's a treasure chest fairy that fills them when you're not looking.
  - I imagine she's the same fairy that refilled the chests in the Lunar Subterrane? There must be a wild encounter fairy too that went around killing off the monsters from the original game and replacing them. How else did all those dragons in the Lunar Core get replaced with turtles and armored knights?
  - Because Cecil and Co killed all of the dragons, that's how.
- Shouldn't the random placement of treasure chests in a fresh crater be more of a problem then the fact that they're refilled?
  - The meteor presumably comes from The True Moon, which has plenty of treasure chests in it.
Kain failing the trial on Mount Ordeals and his evil side gaining a separate existence... well, as legitimate a plot point in any Final Fantasy game. However, Kain faffing around on Mount Ordeals for seventeen years before this happens is just silly.
- It took seventeen years before he qualified for the trial. There's a reason Kluya needed to use a lot of power to let Cecil do it immediately.
How does Cecil know Golbez's true name is "Theodor" to name his son Ceodore after him? He's always heard his brother referred to by the moniker of "Golbez," and doesn't call him anything else until after the death of Zeromus, at which point he just calls him "brother." And even near the beginning of Ceodore's Tale Cecil still calls him Golbez.
- It's possible that Cecil could have done some research to find out where he was born and met the people who knew about his family. The King of Baron would be able to gather that kind of information.
Why do the Elemental Lords want to get killed again? The Creator restored their living avatars, they GET OVER their mind control (and Rubicante is not even controlled), they DO NOT fell evil, so... they let their avatars be destroyed by the party for, virtually, nothing. Instead of, I don't know, ACTIVELY HELPING us to defeat the invaders. Or, maybe, living in the mortal plane again. No, let's just die for no reason at all!.. Same goes for Edge's parents.
- In both cases, it was because they were afraid of being controlled and used for evil again
In both Kain's Tale and the Gathering Tale, you can explore the world for days at a time, and "meanwhile", a single conversation is happening in a nearby castle. Especially jarring in the Gathering Tale, where you explore the entire world from top to bottom, rescue every lost party member, and it takes that long for Ceodore and co. to have their confrontation with Cecil.
Soooo, why no Bands with Ceodore, Kain and Cecil? Seems like a wasted opportunity to me.
Am I the only one bothered by the fact that Ceodore is shoehorned into the main character role when he barely gets ANY screentime at all? If ANYONE has the makings of being main character, then it would be Rydia, just for the sheer amount of plot and development that revolves around her over the course of the game. Hell, even the ENDING has a special place for Rydia, giving her Cuore the Maenad for her to raise as a daughter.
- As I see it, Ceodore lost his main character role when he lets his party split up once they get into Baron Castle, which allows the Mysidian Mages to leave before they find any information worth taking home, and the Hooded Man to lock him out of the loop regarding Cecil's condition. After that, the plot happens at such a fast pace that he doesn't get a chance to do anything that stands out.
This may have been a translation error with the PSP version, but... In Yang's tale, while Yang and Ursula are sailing to Baron, their ship starts losing speed. The captain claims it's because their fuel tank is leaking. Do you see something wrong with this paragraph?