I'm not much of a VII fan, but I'm willing to give it a second chance. The materia system does need fixed and tweaked, but NOT overhauled. It can work, but it has some flaws that need work.

If Square does change VII's encountering and battle system, I'll totally skip the remake.

If Square pissed all over a remake of my favorite one (which they didn't, THANK GOD!), I would be very pissed off and feel betrayed. It would take me a lot to bring me back to buying their games. Recently they seem to be trying to one-up other games and please critics, rather than making fun games and pleasing their fans.