Things like this always make me think about the limits of story telling.

What I mean is, Aerith's character to me is how she was introduced and grew in FFVII, and I was not all that impressed with her portrayal in Crisis Core. She didn't feel like Aerith to me.
Now, the thing is, if that was a real person it would of course be the same person. Perhaps she has grown in character, changed due to a dramatic life event, or just decided to act differently. I know i'm a different person now than I was in my teens.

But because its a fictional character and CC was written a long time after the original, I could also argue SE messed her personality up. It seemed like they were 'trying' to make her similar to how she was in the original, but something just feels 'off' to me.

Like if Aerith was a raging lunatic in CC, does that mean we have to accept that just because the game is canon? Or should we call BS on such things?

Also, I agree that at times some character traits don't fit the scene. For example, in AC it wouldn't make sense for Aerith to start flirting with Cloud, but she didn't need to. She encouraged him to keep going. However, at the same time, the small snippets of her that we do see don't give me the impression that she couldn't if she wanted to. It fits with how I came to know her in FFVII.