I'd say it's practically unrecognizable from the old tone and purpose

This is an interesting point, the tone and purpose. For example, in the original, they blew up the reactor in midgar (bigger than planned), but in the new one, they didn't, president shinra did - avalanche's plan failed but the outcome happened anyway.

Obviously what this does is change the tone slightly from a morally ambiguous to simply good vs evil, and is a little less believable that somebody in such a successful and powerful position would resort to such ridiculous extremes, that aren't even that effective in the end, compared to just someone messing up a bomb due to being an inexperienced terrorist.

I do think that takes something away from the original. BUT, for a first time player, it's a non-issue so It's fine so far. I just hope the future elements don't get stripped of complexity.

that's the fanbase's own fault.

True. The fanbase is awful lol. Almost as bad as those Rick & Morty fans in its early days. Eurgh.

at the end of the day it is FFVII

Cheers to that! I don't wanna give too negative a tone. I'm still enjoying it a ton and can't wait to see everything unfold =D