I had max courage and max knowledge by the time I fought Shadow Naoto anyway, but I couldn't finish her social link because it takes ridiculously long if you don't figure out the riddles and don't have a fortune Persona. I didn't figure that out until the second playthrough, where I maxed hers before Nanako's death. lol I'm trying to max Hermit and Magician right now in P3, the former for being hilarious as hell and the latter for Surt. Also trying to get "smooth" Charm rate so I can start the Devil social link to get Beelzebub. (One of my favorites, especially after fighting him in Nocturne.)
And nooooo....I'd rather have Yukari because I actually like her, but no way I'm replacing Akihiko. Not a chance. Nope. Not the only boxer in an RPG. I actually planned to use Yukari instead of Mitsuru but I grew to like her during the playthrough. Honestly because the A.I controls your team-mates in P3 FES (which is awful and makes me wanna try P3P instead) I just decided to always have a healing Persona and heal myself when needed, because I am not relying on an A.I for that lol. (And Akihiko and Mitsuru already can heal anyway, just individually rather than all party.)
EDIT: I actually maxed a lot of people's social links in my second playthrough. Only ones I didn't are Temperance (finished it on first playthrough), Chariot (Chie's my least favorite), Priestess (Yukiko's social link was so boring I stopped half-way), Lovers (Tried at the last second but couldn't max it) and Empress (self-explanatory.)