A lot of people just don't like 16bit RPGs but loved FFVII, I had a few friends who had always hated RPGs and then got tricked into buying FFVII by the misleading ads and ended up loving it. They still couldn't get into pre-psx RPGs though for some reason.
They can't call themselves Final Fantasy fans if they're only going to kiss up to anything VII and up. The original 2D versions were what made Squaresoft into the RPG powerhouse.