Great review, Marc! I especially loved the third paragraph from the end, where you talked about the utility of the four-character team and how that can work to your advantage. But there were a lot of great bits throughout.
Freeman, to answer your question: you can't change your jump direction mid-air. Or couldn't when I played it for a bit on Switch. I saw people complaining about that on Twitter, too. Honestly, it didn't bother me in the first two stages or so, but maybe it would get to me in some of the later areas.
"Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." - John F. Kennedy on reality
"What if everything you see is more than what you see--the person next to you is a warrior and the space that appears empty is a secret door to another world? What if something appears that shouldn't? You either dismiss it, or you accept that there is much more to the world than you think. Perhaps it really is a doorway, and if you choose to go inside, you'll find many unexpected things." - Shigeru Miyamoto on secret doors to another world