Ultimately I feel the worst for Tabata and his team. It's pretty plain now that even if they've moved through the motions and tried to hold on to everything they could, the lion's share of the Versus stuff - even stuff from the 2013 re-reveal - has been thrown out. And, y'know, I'm fine with that. Games change.
However it's a bit pants for Tabata and his new team, I think, as whatever they release will now be compared to people's glorious head-canon dreams of what Nomura's Versus XIII would've been like. From his comments about it being more adult (and blood in those first trailers!) to character switching in combat and a generally more KH style - plus the story changes - people are going to bleat and bleat. The problem is... it's difficult, if not impossible, to stand up to a dream. It could be one of the best games ever (which, to be honest, I doubt after this development cycle) and ultimately it still wouldn't stand up to what six to seven years of imagining and dreaming will've cooked up.
I think Tabata is good. I think he's a lot more of a businessman than the 'old school' Square Directors, but I'd say the same about Yoshida, who has done a brilliant job on FF14. I think his team features a lot of interesting faces, new and old, who deserve more of the spotlight.
..so it's a shame their first big, massive project like this will now forever sit in the shadow of what it once was. I wish they'd just cancelled Versus XIII and let them do something all-new, to be honest, so the game could stand and be judged alone and on its own merits by fans.
Even announcing it differently would've been better; it's now clear it would've been smarter to say "Versus XIII is dead, but we're bringing as many elements we can and that fit into an all-new game" rather than "Versus XIII is now FF15,and we're continuing to develop the original vision".
It may have saved a short-term headache to say the latter to keep people calm, but it's only going to serve as a long-term bullshit generator among the fans now. It's a shame, as there's a good chance Tabata and co will produce something genuinely great - it just won't be what certain fans wanted from Versus. I'm reminded, as weird as the comparison sounds, of Banjo Kazooie - where Nuts & Bolts is genuinely one of the best games of the last generation but it got shit on by a lot of people because it simply wasn't what they wanted/expected based on previous games and the first trailer (which teased a traditional platformer.)