but ZUN has reused elements from former games (not to mention other games/series), such as Alice, Yuka, Reimu's bgm in IN, the bullet spawners before Yukari in PCB, PoFV. Sometimes, people guess right.
regarding changes in fighting games, compare SF2 CE with ST or 3s, or Fatal Fury 2 with Garou MotW, or MvsC 1 with MvsC 2. These are examples of successful games (tournament-wise, in varying degrees). SWR is nice to people who don't play for competition, and isn't for those who do play for competition (so, the relation between developers and public doesn't affect the former negatively). Quoting Bellreisa (iirc), "the problem isn't that the gameplay has changed, it's that it hasn't changed for the better". What (imho) made SWR different from the examples I've mentioned above, is that it's not fit to be played for competition (and the weather is regarded as being the least of the problems), and IaMP could be enjoyed by both player profiles.