I think Jafar is less sympathetic in some ways because we’ve seen how cruel and cold he is, and how utterly lacking of sympathy for others, while Ana seems to have sympathy but covers it up at times under a stern exterior, so as not to appear weaker than she is. Jafar wants to force the Sultan to submit. I”m not sure it is about love at all really, but in some ways, pride and revenge, but underneath that, perhaps he is desperate to feel loved but I do not think so. Why not change the past and save his mother instead if he wants love? If he’s going to all the trouble to change the laws of magic, it feels to me there is this element to consider. He wants all the power and his father’s love, I think, so he can then reject his father to make him feel the hurt he felt. It is not good enough to just kill the Sultan when the Sultan expects that. He has to break his heart and shatter him with unexpected betrayal first–the pain he felt. He did that to Amara so he is capable of it.
I do agree though that Ana seeking to wish away her choices is not growth or truly redemption for her character. She is looking for magic to solve her problems and the trouble is, she wouldn’t change anything about herself so she would just make the same choices more or less as before.
“If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn't. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn't be. And what it wouldn't be, it would. You see?” -- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass