Am I the only one who thinks the 7 remake was an utter shitshow?
Yes you are.. it was incredible. The only gripe I had with it was the incredibly slow load times and how you're forced to slow walk thru semi cutscenes. They fixed the first with intergrade but the annoying forced walking is still there. The game is amazing though.
I really liked it as well. My #1 issue might not be an issue, and it all depends on how they roll out the sequel. I hear a lot of speculation that the gear/materia/levels/etc. will be reset in Part 2, but that would probably bother me quite a bit. The two main arguments that I hear against carrying over saves are based on shallow reasoning.
1.
It excludes people who didn't play Part 1! - No, they can give you option of starting a "standard" game with a default loadout if you don't have a save from Part 1.
2.
You could be too OP! - So what? It's the same with any Final Fantasy game where you do all the side quests and grind hard early in the game. If you want a challenge, play with the default loadout and/or play on a harder difficulty option that is designed to account for that.
And any explanation for losing all your starting gear/materia/etc. would be hard to sell anyway. The whole "Yuffie could just steal everything!" theory is an extremely contrived plot device. It wouldn't even work well for materia (she steals them, but... then what? They disappear forever?).