It makes a lot of sense betraying a combat system which was the heart and soul of FFVII for the remake. Yep. Why not introduce new gamers some "old" ways to play? And give fans of the game what they actually want? 

EDIT: Fuck, I'm so angry right now, you can't mess with one of my favourite games ever, SE.

Nostalgia is the main selling point of remakes though. That is the whole purpose of them, to recapture the audience that originally loved them, of course they want to get new people in to it as well but those original fans are the main audience. Anybody else isn't going to give a toss about a remake since they won't care about the original, to them it is no different from a brand new game so again... if the intent is to get those people why not just ya know make a brand new game for them. Like FFXV, that's for those people, as will XVI and so on and so forth, bringing back the classics should be for people that liked the classics.

Resident Evil Remake is pretty much the perfect example. It is so good Capcom re-released the game years later and people were happy. It is true to the original in every way. I don't think people are asking the exact same battle system but an updated turn based battle system.

Nostalgia is the main selling point of remakes though. That is the whole purpose of them, to recapture the audience that originally loved them, of course they want to get new people in to it as well but those original fans are the main audience. Anybody else isn't going to give a toss about a remake since they won't care about the original, to them it is no different from a brand new game so again... if the intent is to get those people why not just ya know make a brand new game for them. Like FFXV, that's for those people, as will XVI and so on and so forth, bringing back the classics should be for people that liked the classics.

I tried the PS1 version, just can't get into it.

Bringing a game into the modern world, usually doesn't mean "dramatic."

There's room for improvements and updates in the gameplay.  But most people don't want to play a completely different game, and "dramatic changes" sounds like a bad idea.  

Particularly when we don't know of anything that he has in mind for changes.  It's a terrifying and unsettling thought for someone who was looking forward to the game.  He was so vague in his idea that for all we know, he could be making a racing game.  (Well, we know more than that, and we know it's not going to be a racing game, but what he said is concerning.)

Particularly when most people didn't really like SE's most recent titles.  

Everything is special about it!

Being able to control your whole team and not relying on AI assistance and then getting frustrated when they screw things up.
The strategy and planning involved in winning boss battles, you can't just mash buttons and hope for the best you actually have to plan things out. You have to set your characters up with the right materia and equipment or you may not even have a chance. This is more for boss battles (particularly the optional ones) than the fairly easy regular battles.
The ability to adjust the pace of it. VII actually have controls to alter the speed of the ATB bars, so if you wanted fast paced combat you could have that, or if like me you wanted the slowest possible combat that pauses everytime someones ATB bar is full you can have that too.
Long battles. Some of the boss battles could take a long time and require a lot of effort and were really satisfying to win. With action you can't really do that, for one thing people don't want to spend hours hacking at the same enemy in action games but also there isn't really time to recover from any mistakes.
Able to recover from mistakes. Screw up and on the verge of defeat? No problem, you have time to plan and think out your next moves, use cure, throw some phoenix downs or whatever, and have a chance at turning the battle around.
Being able to eat a sandwich or something while playing. No chance of getting a game over or something while you take a break to have a bite of your sandwich as the game will just wait for you to have your turn.

And of course most importantly, it's just FUN!