Am I the only one who thinks the combat in this game is awful? My biggest problem isn't that it's easy but that the fights always feel so congested. There needs to be more space, especially when sparing off against the sand creatures.
I also hate how you have to harvest the sand as it gives the enemies an opportunity to hit you while exposed. And since the fights always are some crammed this happens about 25% of the time.
And don't even get me started on how tight the camera is, making me unable to see all the enemies around me.
I heard combat was the weakest part of the game, but I'd go even further and say it's a significant issue in the game.

I've found the combat to be a bit repetitive and to drag on a bit, but other than that I haven't had too many issues with it. The only battle so far that's felt particularly cramped to me is the one in the soldiers' mess hall, but other than that I've always felt I had enough room to maneuver. Towards the beginning things feel even more open, as the "vault over the enemy and hit them from behind" move gives you incredibly mobility. Against opponents later, though, such as spearmen and swordsmen, the vaulting move is just a quick way to get knocked on your ass. Against these kinds of opponents battles have taken on a much more tactical feel for me, with the fight being about always keeping my guard up while maneuvering for position and waiting for an opening. In these kinds of fights I've actually found a fairly closed area to work to my advantage as when the sand creature bunch together they'll end up taking each other out, leaving only the final sand-collecting blow for me.
So while I agree that combat is the weakest part of the game (brought into contrast even more by how excellent everything else is), I personally haven't yet found it to be all that significant an issue, although that have been one or two annoying fights (generally when I have to protect Farah in addition to myself, or when she decides to turn me into a pincushion at an inopportune time).

I don't like it much. It's repetitive, formulaic and invites (I almost wrote 'requires') the player to spam the same tactics over and over. Looks nice, though.
They fixed this in Warrior Within, by the way, adding a lot more options to combat and making it a lot more enjoyable. Unfortunately they completely botched the bosses, each one literally requiring you to spam the same move over and over for about ten minutes, and punishing any deviation from that with a quick death.

Yea, I had her die several times in the fight in the library. Also, she's killed me once. That really made me mad.

My problems with it are threefold:
1) It's repetitive. There's about 4 attacks you can do, and blocking and countering is really tricky to pull off
2) It's not nearly as smooth as the platforming. I've died many times because the prince just won't absorb the body right next to him, instead wasting power tanks paralysing a different enemy because the auto-focus is wonky, thus preventing me from using that mega attack...plus cramped areas and a camera that likes to wig out.
3) It goes on and on... I honestly think combat wouldn't be a problem no additional monsters spawned in. Taking on 4 or 5 sand creatures is fun, and makes a good break from platforming. Fighting 6 waves of 8... is just tedious.
The thing is, there are times when combat finds a really cool rythym, when the Prince is moving around his foes slashing him to bit, and Farah sends arrows into the monster that's inches away from hitting him, saving him in the nick of time.
The problem is that's like 1/30 fights.

An autolock feature would have been so nice. I always wonder how hard that would be to implement in a game because it seems a common problem among these kinds of game.

I don't think it would be necessary.
The true issue with Prince of Persia : Sand of Times is the camera. It's very badly managed, so the aimed adversary may change any time, and is harder to hit.
But if you look at the new generation's Tomb Raider (which, I realized it playing The Sand of Times, is a total copy/paste of the Ubisoft's Prince of Persia), the camera is well managed and the fighting is a lot more pleasant : they may look like thoses of Prince of Persia but you never fire at someone you weren't aiming.
Regarding the sand harvesting, I kinda like it in fact : it become important to rule the fight and to make your enemies move where you need them to be. I find it pretty cool in fact.
And at the end of the game, sand harvesting disapear when you get the 3rd sword.
By the way, the final fight is totally disapointing. What was the point giving us back the sand for a fight like that ? I was expecting so much more...
The Super Nintendo Prince of Persia final fight is way more captivating and harder.