I really struggle to come up with ways to make Midgar last 40 hours without making it feel bloated.
We shall see but so often remakes should have simply been new games... I know people can never get enough nostalgia but it hard for me not to think that this could be even better if it had a new story and a new cast rather than be tied down to a 20 year old story.
I'd be much, much more interested in this if it was FFXVI honestly.
I would completely agree if you're just saying that it's always better for companies to make new games from scratch rather than expanding on an existing brand (that said, I can think of exceptions). Doubly so if the company is actually capable of doing something new that's just as good.
With something like this, it's more of a practical benefit than a nostalgic benefit for me, though. I don't think Square Enix is capable of imagining/conceiving of anything that's even a fraction as good as that twenty year old story anymore (or anything from their prime from FFIV to FFIX, really), and if they made a new game, it would likely only be as good as FFXIII or FFXV, which were absolutely dreadful. They're bad at it now, so maybe it's better if they have training wheels on.
As far as respectful and tasteful remakes go, I'm 100% onboard with the idea of fixing all the superficial imperfections of classics so that they're as good/refined as humanly possible (especially when they're massively flawed yet inspired the way that FFVII is). If for no other reason than to fully take advantage of the foundation that made it special and give it the treatment that it deserves, with the benefit of hindsight.
It's so rare that this happens successfully that maybe it ultimately isn't worth it though, I can give you that. Still though, I don't care about novelty and I don't care about sentimental manipulation. I just want whatever would create the tightest and most worthwhile experience. If you can do it by creating a new game (next to impossible with Square Enix), you should do it, and if you can do it by modernizing a classic (still doubtful but much more plausible with Square Enix), you should do it.