LOL, I died laughing when Red showed up to challenge Cloud. I love how each area has more detail to it, issue is you spend hours on the side quests.
Yeah that doesn't change.
It is pretty amazing how often they added things in the game that I didn't know I wanted (the entire seventh infantry sequence in upper Junon) but can't imagine not having them now.
NGL though, theres more than a few things that they added in that I wish they hadn't. I think you've gotten through most of my least favorite parts of the game already (really, the sheer volume of forced side quests in chapter 7 and 8) but theres something pretty late game that is/was infuriatingly annoying and completely unnecessary which is completely unrelated to side content. You'll know what I'm talking about when you get there.
Ch 9 (which is the best example of them expanding on the OG and
nailing it, even more so than Junon IMO) and 10 are awesome.