I don't think the English voice actors did a poor job at all. I think they were actually pretty good. Its not their fault the script has so many awkward lines and anime grunts left right and center.
The review is pretty spot on. The story is stretched paper thin, there is too much filler and bloat that takes away from the superior original characters and story beats.
The whole thing falls flat and the changes that were made before the ending robs the two better moments of this part of the story of their emotional weight.
That three hour video of three FF fanboys doing a blog said just as much, but they bent over backwards trying to soften that because they want to love this game so badly and clearly don't want to deal with the backlash on their channels.
And yeah Jessie is annoying with how obnoxiously thirsty she is. Its a bad anime trope. Game was two steps from becoming a harem anime with Cloud.
While I obviously agree with some of the easy-to-pick-out criticisms, my issue with the video is that the guy has zero appreciation for camp and anything that isn't traditional serious acting or plausible realism/naturalism (using games like God of War/Firewatch as the standard), and kept either disingenuously or ignorantly using examples of scenes that merely look bad out of context (but is deliberately awkward for an effective purpose) in order to cheaply and misleadingly emphasize the joke and make things look worse than they are. This is especially egregious considering that the game is packed with moments that are actually guilty of what he's saying.
For example, the Shinra Middle Manager/clapping scene was clearly deliberate camp used to great effect as a comedic device, but it's treated like an example of bad acting/lack of self awareness (the same type of moment is used in the original in the same way). The "getting up Shinra HQ by stairs" scene was used as an example of uninspired level design when that very thing is the whole comedic point, resulting in one of the better moments in the game (used to the same effect in the original too). The ultra slow high-five was also intentionally comedic and served a consistent and effective character purpose, but was passed off as a design nuisance because of how silly and slow it looks without context. Also, the "bathed in Mako" line sounded pretty correct and audible to me-- He didn't say "mana".
Beyond that, what generally bothered me about the video is that he kept focusing on all these superficial surface level elements that ultimately don't matter (an unrealistic/campy soap-opera-esque tone can be used effectively, and the original often ignored this factor as well while focusing on getting the bigger picture factors right) and brushing past the heart of the actual grander problems that surrounded them. Namely, convenient, cop-out outcomes undermining stakes and rendering build-up inconsequential, and anti-thetical and valueless themes/meaning communicated-- Only vaguely grazed upon without elaboration, if they were noticed at all. Aerith being overly calm and not manically man-handling children in a crisis was instead the type of thing he focused on.
It just struck me as rattling through easy pot-shots/oddities in the game without paying much attention to the actual validity of each example being faulty, the same way Cinema Sins does and always ends up looking foolish for.
Regarding the Resonant Arc video, while the other two seemed hesitant (they truly are fanboys with little choice but to concede to negative takes), the guy driving the conversation was much more eloquent, ruthless, knowledgable of different writing styles, and fair in getting to the actual root of the game's issues without sugar-coating it, IMO. The audience considerations you're accusing him of is not his MO at all, either (his videos and his audience are traditionally very skeptical and ambivalent about this type of project in the first place).
