I find it amusing that most "demos" are more like betas these days (in that devs actually collect feedback and implement changes to the final product from them- see FFXV, Ni-Oh, and now AR) and most "betas" are more like demos (in that they're clearly more about promoting the game than actually catching bugs/collecting feedback- see Overwatch, The Division, and Battlefront.)
And while it's nice that they've realized that this clearly isn't the game fans want from the franchise and are trying to salvage it, it's still a little troubling that it took that overwhelming fan feedback to make them realize it.
JRPG fans have no fucking clue what they want. Myself included.
We are not a monolith. The responses tend to be all over the board with these sort of things.
Devs aren't fortune-tellers.
I'm okay with the cycle of feedback and adjustment in development.
Be creative, then tighten the screws a little.
JRPG fans as a whole may not know what they want, but Valkyria fans have a pretty clear idea of what they want and an action RPG spinoff isn't it, at least not when there hasn't been a proper main-line game in five goddamned years. Had this game been announced alongside a proper VC4 reaction wouldn't be as violent, I'm sure.
It's similar to how a big part of the negative reaction to Federation Force was because there hasn't been a decent "standard" Metroid game since 2007. People don't mind spin-offs as a general rule, even shitty cash-grab spinoffs like f2p mobile games and pachinko machines, but only as long as they're actually spin-offs, which requires there to still be an active main line of the franchise to spin-off from.