I don't see why people have a stick up their ass about FF7 Remake. This was never going to be better than the original, but it does provide a different experience, one that's more modernized for better or for worse. I'm glad they're making changes to the story, characters and gameplay, otherwise why bother? We're only up to what, Aerith being killed in the Remake? If I want to experience the story, I can just fire up the original game and get the real deal right now. It's less about the remake being true to the original and more about what they're going to do with the rest of the story going forward. The more action based gameplay is also, in my opinion, better than the turn based one, although your mileage may vary.
That said, I do agree that some decisions have been...questionable. Much of the changes to the story also seem to be entirely centered around doing the most edgy and whacky thing possible because the players would totally not expect the devs to do that(First episode and second episode final Sepiroth fight, how Aerith dies, the whole Sepiroth clone subplot ect.). The episodic format itself is also hardly a decent way to release the games, it's like Square hasn't learned from Valve. If they couldn't do it at their peak, nobody can.
The way I see it, the FF7 remake should be treated similarly to a game like Pokemon ORAS, the remakes of Ruby and Sapphire. They add many new features and a new twist on the story and some locations, not to mention many more Pokemon and updated gaming mechanics. Does that mean that the original GBA titles are outdated and shouldn't be played? Not at all, the definitive game that takes place in that region would still be Emerald, not ORAS, despite the outdated mechanics, and that's why you should play both and treat each game on it's own merits: Despite both being similar, both have their pros and cons that make each worthwhile in their own way.
I might be behind on the discourse, but I only caught up to the new chapter right now.
