I can honestly say I have never really thought about it that way. I didn't play XII or XIII when they first came out, XII I played after the remaster. I went from playing X and not playing another one until XV, 16? 17? years later. I still haven't played XIII but I do think XII and XV are good games and XII is much closer to what you would expect from a Final Fantasy game. I feel like somewhere after X, they did lose the formula for Final Fantasy.
XV was cool. It was innovative. It was pretty. I just don't know if it was Final Fantasy. Don't get me wrong, I want games to look nice. No one wants to play a game that looks like ****. I just think the push for absolute graphical perfection comes at the expense of the most important parts of the game, dialogue, story, battle mechanics. The last FF game I played that had more than 2 of the 4 was X. I thought the story, battle mechanics and graphics were great. Dialogue/voice acting... ehh.
All that to say... maybe by redoing VII they will do more than just hit us all right in the nostalgia feels. Maybe they can recapture the FF magic that they had for so many years. I'm doubtful we see anything at E3 for the VII remake but I would be surprised if the Final Fantasy series didn't make some kind of splash at the show.