Well, I still love most JRPGs, but I can see where this problem is coming from. I think it stems from a desire to change either nothing, which doesn't bother me much, but makes it stale for many others, lowering sales, or a desire to throw everything out and make practically nothing the same, turning off many of the core JRPG fanbase from the drastic change. I think the best way to do it is to do small and gradual changes. The changes can be bigger than they are in Dragon Quest (2 introduced a party, 3 the idea of multiple words, 4 the chapter system, etc), but when FF7 and FF8 have almost nothing in common outside FF staples, then too much changed.
I guess the best fix, is don't be afraid of change, but also don't abandon what works. Old fans want something familiar to lean back on, whereas newer ones want something different and, well, new. Where this balance is may be a tricky game, but they really could start trying to close in on it.
-dunno001
-On a quest for the truly perfect game; I don't think it exists...
