I think you probably have a point to some extent...

but part of the reason that FF VII keeps blowing up, is b/c Square (enix) keeps churning out new games/movies for it and thereby keeping it in the public eye.

I think there's a group that discovered VII first, and they think it's the be all, end all of FF games, but a lot of gamers put their stock in the 1st game of a series they play.

I could argue that Tecmo Super Bowl was the greatest football game ever made (which it is), but most people who grew up in the PS/PS 2 era would laugh at me.

But I would disagree that VII was the peak...VI was better, and Tactics was better and those are two games directly in front and behind VII. (although Tactics isn't part of the series proper i guess)