I played FF7, and I know exactly what scene you are talking about, but it in no way made me more invested. It felt thrown in to me, and from what the developers are saying may not even make it into the remake.
Investment or not, even with the remake and people who haven't even played the original still know about Aerith's death. It is, arguably, one of the most famous deaths in gaming history.
As far as the remake is concerned. It's an alternate timeline which is what those ghost things mean. They are trying to correct things but things are going different. Jessie was killed off quite early in the original and didn't really play a big enough part for anyone to care yet she's incredibly popular with the remake. Original FF7 was always a 2 girl show with Tifa and Aerith, even Yuffie was missed by a lot of people due to how strict her recruitment methods were.
Now we have all 4 girls front and center and done in a way that works better than I could have expected. While orignal FF7 will always be one of the most beloved games i've played I absolutely adore the remake.
As far as remakes for games with twists go, System Shock is due out soon and we'll see if that's as good as the original. I know some people hated the original due to levelling up and being possible to do it so wrong you could no longer progress in the game but it seems they changed all that.
The entire purpose of the God of War series existing is because Kratos went on a rampage and wiped out Olympus when he was tricked into killing his wife and child. His skin is stained white with the ashes of that burning village.
Deaths are still an easy way to draw people in though.
Think about popular tv shows of recent memory. GoT used killing main characters off all the time. Spartacus did it really well. Crixus death was done to perfection, if they had killed him off earlier it wouldn't have hit at all but near the end when he was loved... perfick. Vikings did it really well too. Ragnar's death and the battle following it was awesome. Even a kids book, Harry Potter, used death incredibly well. Didn't even need to kill off any of the big main characters, the death of one of the twins was enough but along with Snape who had been protecting Harry all along and Sirius who was the last of his family, both characters that weren't exactly fan faves but both deaths impacted the story and the characters.
Killing off loved ones in a story is a cheap way to get fans behind their protag of choice but it works and worked insanely well for 1 of the most popular super heroes of all time and one of the most beloved and violent. Batman being the first with his parents death being the motivation to start his campaign and Punisher being the second who saw his entire family murdered which sent him on a violent rampage of revenge.
It's cheap, we see through it most of the time but it still works.
