The remastered copy on Steam let’s you speed up the game. It is much quicker running around at x4 speed and clearing random encounters. Then slow game speed to normal for major bosses and events. I would highly recommend this route rather than trying to find a PS2 again.
If you haven’t played FFX-2 or FFXII then those are worth checking out too.
I don’t bother communicating. I just play silently and usually mute the chat if it is toxic. Even games like overwatch worked out ok playing without communicating.
The only time I had a decent experience playing with strangers was when I found specific gaming subs or Discord communities (e.g. casual gaming, gaming dads, etc) and played in a Discord voice channel. This was actually a really good experience in games like Street fighter or Apex legends. I could do dumb shit in game and they’d be completely chill and say “it happens” and carry on to the next game. Haven’t done this for the last couple of years though.