I know i am necroing, but since this save anywhere patch is the only one listed, the bug is still on and the ability tool being kinda important..
I could imagine this could be easily fixed if one knows what he's doing, maybe not.
Yeah this bug has been posted a few times, and i will get around to fixing it one day (maybe) but to be 100% honest it isn't a bad bug,
The bug only occurs when you don't have any Abilities, as soon as you get 1 ability you will be able to use the ability section as normal so it really shouldn't be a problem.
(This is also the reason why i never knew about the bug when i made the patch, i always used a save that had 1 ability on it)
Next time i find my FF8 CD's i will take another look at this if i really need too. Let me know how you get on once you get 1 ability.