Yeah. Playing through rebirth and the pacing is super off. I'm at least 10 hours into this, maybe closer to 15, and really there is very little that has happened that is essential to the plot. The story just wasn't really meant for this format. 

First off, the obvious: it's all optional except for 3. Rebirth is designed for those who appreciate depth, detail, and a richly woven narrative. Its pacing ensures that players can immerse themselves fully in its world, building connections with characters and plot points that make the eventual climaxes all the more rewarding. The game also aims to appeal to new players by offering a modern take on a classic story, balancing nostalgia with innovative gameplay and storytelling techniques. - 90 hours deep and still knee-deep in the adventure.

Yup. We are just too unsophisticated to appreciate the majesty of all things Final Fantasy VII XD.

It's probably not worth addressing this strawman argument, but I'll try. Nobody is complaining about side content. That's part of what made FFVII great. But, people are complaining about lame side content. Escorting a dog to give money to some dude with a pregnant wife who I am assuming I will never see again is not interesting. Nor is waking up some guy who tells me to go pick up some driftwood. Or fixing a pipe. These don't add depth to a richly woven narrative, they're fetch quests, with uninteresting characters. And I want to do them to make sure my characters are appropriately leveled, and I have good materia and equipment, but I'm very tempted to just start plowing through the main story objectives, because they're boring. 

By contrast, you have a game like Mass Effect 2/3. Those games had plenty of side quests, but they were actually like... interesting. Doing one would feel rewarding because the characters involved in the side stories were interesting and doing them would actually help make the world feel more engaging. The characters are well written, have motivations and personality, and doing the quests helps you learn interesting things about the world. Another good example is (some) of the sidequests in Spider-man 2. One of which legit made me cry. It wasn't strictly necessary for the story, but it was interesting in its own right and well worth playing through. Of course, all of those games had some boring ones too, but more often than not, doing sidequests was enjoyable and didn't feel like grinding like it does in Remake/Rebirth. So, yes, you can and should have sidecontent, but only if that side content doesn't suck. 

Again, I'm just past Junon, so maybe things will change but so far, this is feeling to me like the Hobbit movies. There's a lot of good stuff, but it's unnecessarily bogged down by tons of forgettable stuff because they decided to stretch one game into three. And, while I definitely don't have the market research to back it up, that is potentially a reason why people are not rushing to get the game. I would have waited, except for the fact that I have the summer off and wanted to play it before it got spoiled. There's a good game in here, surrounded by a lot of unnecessary shit. 

Rebirth is designed for a niche crowd, hence sales (for FF) are garbage.

Just because a book is 700 pages doesn't mean it is a good book.  

Square needs to drop all the stupid filler.  Making FF7, across 3 games, 200 hours is just silly.  

Edit

WeinCom nailed it.  The problem isn't side content.  The problem is the quality.  If it isn't quality it should be cut.  Herding cats, literally, isn't fun.

Witcher 3 has tons of side content....  but some of those side missions actually build the world.  Tossing boxes for 45 minutes doesn't build the world.  

And in my experience, skipping content means being under leveled and missing good equipment...

FF VII Rebirth 3 month exclusivity period ends today, and we still don't even have release date for PC version of FF XVI...

Lol, square apparently doesn't like money.  I'm fully expecting Square to launch 16 next year at $70 and then will act surprised when it doesn't fly off the shelves.  

The filler problem is just part of a bigger problem.

A 10-12 hour Final Fantasy would flop too because people's expectations are for a lot more than that. So that's a dead end.

So they throw in padding/side quests because it's the main way you can extend the size of a game without increasing the cost exponentially. Unfortunately it creates bloat but you hit the requisite "30+ hours minimum" bullet point for your marketing.

Make remake 10 hours and rebirth 15 hours, one game?

Edit

I'm also not convinced short games would flop.  Spider 2 isn't massive but sold well.  I finished it 100% at 20 hours or so 

Different expectations. I think Spider-man 2 was a bit short, but I didn't mind that much. I would have been disappointed if FFVII was the same length. 

I don't buy games with less than 20h of gameplay for full price. Not worth the price imo