I think part of why people "blame Nomura" is because by now, Nomura and the team of devs he is working with, have been making games for over 30 years. With visual arts and music, it's possible to look back on people's work and notice trends in the art and music that they make. When that goes on long enough, the creator's style changes. So you get people who like an artists "early work" but not their "later work" or vice-versa. And by now... Nomura and Co. have made enough games where their style has changed (granted, the medium has too, but...) some of that has been for the better or neutral, while other changes haven't been as good.
The other thing this means is that people have enough time and enough works to see across the works of these devs bothers them. And also to see if what bothers them happens more often in stories or less often as time goes by. And one of the things that has... really always been an issue with the works of these creators is things happening because "this looks cool" rather then because they serve the story. But I'd say doing things because "this looks cool" is something that has happened more and more often as time has gone on, rather than less. And not just in the FF franchise. Part of the problem with the Kingdom Hearts franchise is that it runs on "this looks cool" more then it runs on "this happens so the narrative makes sense". And... given who came up with the Kingdom Hearts story... it's really easy to point out that even without the other dev members, Nomura writes stories a certain way. Especially when there's no one else to curb him in. And... now he's the Director of FF7 and one of the main writers... So I think being worried about him taking things in FF7 in the director and/or style of KH is... a valid concern given that KH was the last work for SE where he had a hand in the story.
As far as it goes for the other story writers... one of the things that... concerns me... with their interviews is how focused they are on the individual scenes and not how those scenes fit into the over-all narrative. It was just... really odd... to read that the exchange Cloud and Sephrioth have in the "Edge of Creation" was written before they knew where and when it would happen in the game. Because... where and when that exchange happens would be very important given what Cloud and Sephrioth are talking about! So to know that could have happened somewhere/when else feels like a red flag for the writers not having a good grip on the over-arching narrative. The same way goes for how the Whispers boss fight is talked about. Boss fights do effect how a story is paced overall as well as how they effect the narrative. So to see no mention of "how will putting a boss fight there effect the story" just... I don't know... it leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
It just feels like the writers as a whole are a lot better at coming up with individual scenes that pack in a lot of spectacle (physical or emotional) then they are at stringing those scenes together to make for a good narrative. And... I wouldn't say that's new... you see that in FF7 and FF8 (more 8 then 7 though). FF13 suffers from spectacle over story in spades and that story didn't have Nomura working on it! But Kitase and Nojima did have a lot to do with FF13's story. And I think with the Remake, the spectacle is even more obvious and over-the-top and the story suffers as a result. So I wouldn't just say it's Nomura who likes his spectacular scenes, I think it's all the writers. But Nomura beats out FF13's spectacle with KH's spectacle... and... he's the Director. It... very much feels to me that all of them are enabling each other's tendencies, with the story writer with the biggest sense of spectacle is at the head of the project.
Which I think both explains why FF7 turned out the way it did and why I don't like it that much. My biggest problem with FF13 was it was spectacle over story and that's one of my biggest problems here. When it comes to this particular set of writers, their work with less spectacle just... works better for me. Which would be their "early work" not their "later work".
I am not saying spectacle is bad. It is great when designing characters and monsters. Particularly bosses and their animations. I find it very telling that a lot of the most spectacular boss animations in FFXIV all come from bosses that were brought in from FF7 and FF8 (KotR's Final Judgement, Eden's Eternal Breath, Ruby Weapon's 2nd phase or any other time Sephiroth Nael dues Darnes shows up to drop Meteor(s) on us with OWA Rise of the White Raven playing in the background while she's raging about the death of her mother brother). The problem is when the "why" the spectacle is happening is mainly so that the spectacle can happen.
