Expecting, sure, but they weren't owed that. They could still change whatever they wanted, being a Remake doesn't necessarily chain it to doing everything the same way. Just look at RE3. It was received below expectations for the changes and cuts, sure, but no one insinuated it was false advertising. They can change whatever they want, people just aren't forced to like it. But you're also not owed an experience you'll personally enjoy when you buy a game, you're just owed the objective experience, not the subjective reaction.
Just look at how many people either hoped or worried that we'd be able to save Aerith. And we didn't have any metanarrative allowing this back then, people just thought they'd change it for no reason and call it a day, writing around any possible consequences.
The "defying fate" storyline allows them to take the story anywhere they want, but ironically it also adds accountability in a way that a direct remake wouldn't. By straight up showing scenes of the original ending at the final boss as "the future we're changing", they're directly acknowledging every relationship of cause and consequence of the original, and will have to justify future changes in comparison to OG FFVII, which is something they wouldn't have to do if they were just setting out to rewrite canon.
A straight remake that just changes whatever they feel like changing would likely change less than this can in future games for the audience's sake, but they wouldn't have to explain shit. Just write it so that the consequences of event A happening in the original aren't the same in the Remake, and there are no problems with it being changed or deleted from the Remake. People would complain, but people always complain about change, good or bad. Doesn't mean they're owed a recreation of the original.
