I guess I'll weigh in.
I too have always held tight to the opinion that bigger/faster/taller doesn't always make the best coaster. My enthusiast friends have always laughingly accused me of loving the runt in the park, preferring to spend my re-ride time on that Bobsled, Mouse, or smaller Woodie as opposed to the MegaLooper, MonsterWoodCoaster, or what have you. So I'm ok with the fact that PKI has given us a diminuitive steel ride with the kind of elements and forces that provide fun rather than extreme thrills. Now, having said THAT...
Even if you are a Disney, Universal, or a Busch, it's a tough task to make a modern theme park audience begin to believe that they have been transported in some way to another world/space/time, and especially tough to re-create a thrilling scene from a well known movie. Audiences these days are sophisticated, educated, and have a rather short attention span where entertainment and technology are concerned. Have you noticed that movies no longer run for months, but have very short first-runs then are retired to a shelf in a video store? Time will tell, but I believe the same audience mentality will apply to theme parks and their themed rides. (Even Disney has had to re-work popular rides to keep them fresh and re-rideable - i.e. Tower of Terror)
So in my opinion, PKI has not hit the nail on the head. I would much rather have seen them spend their money on more of the snappy ride itself than on lame, eventually-to-be-forgotten special movie effects. When I see what little of the area that once held three classic rides is actually being used, my heart aches.
And please don't get me wrong- from my rides last night and listening to the reactions of other riders I believe that they have a hit on their hands. But I also have to believe that something like a generic (but fabulous) one-of-a-kind extended wild mouse there in the Coney Mall would be just as big a hit. And one that would perhaps last through the generations, rather than become instantly old to today's throw-away society.