The thing is, that's what they've done everytime prior. Sometimes not even updating the graphics, like with the 3in1 Mario collection.

I think the issue here is that people suspected the Vivian thing wouldn't fly in Current Year, so they started combing through the script and then discovered all of the various changes. As far as I know Nintendo wasn't really talking about those changes at all and probably didn't do much on the Japanese end in that regard.

So its a case of them expecting it to just fly right through and milk some free money, like SMRPG did, and then a localizer was left unsupervised to run through the script. Meaning a former slam dunk "remake" is now being questioned and compared, with a massive gaping negative on the front that the cheap positives can't scratch.

Also, personal opinion, I'm pretty positive on features like "retry" as long as they don't heal you and you just get another crack exactly as you were. Its more of a time save feature more than a difficulty lower a lot of times, because the alternative is just "now redo all those sections to get back to the part you died and retry anyway."

But that's just my personal opinion and I don't think yours is wrong either.