I guess I'm a DS "purist" (despite the many, many, many, many, may faux pas of the original), which is why I wasn't a big fan of the '91 remake (with Dan Curtis at the helm, no less). As far as I was concerned, it totally mucked up the subtlety and characterizations of the OS. It could've been a million times better. But, as a "purist," I loved it because it was DS - our DS, and it was back. Even HoDS was way off the mark when it came to the OS (although it did portray Barnabas as a totally evil character, as he was suppose to be originally portrayed). But I was infatuated with it. And NoDS had none of the original characters in it. Not one. It had many of the same names, but none of them were the characters from the series. Yes, I loved it. All of them were our DS. (I never saw the '04 version, so I can't comment on that.) And this movie is also our DS, much more faithful, as far as I'm concerned to the OS than all the other variants, even the ones DC did.
We "purists" should always realize that the OS is the foundation of everything that followed. But a foundation is nothing more than that - it's what's put on top that counts and so far everything that has been has been successful. Were the Marilyn Ross novels exactly like the OS? Of course not. Some, if not many, if not most, were horrible. How about the Gold Key comic book series? Oh, gawd, how awful it was, but I bought them as soon as they hit the stands. But it's all our DS. If one wants to be a purist, one needs to look at what DS hath wrought. If one is to puritanical that he/she cannot abide this movie, then forgoe everything that has followed, including the fact that this is the only soap opera that has created such a massive fan base, one that draws thousands to annual festivals and lots and lots of products. Forget everything that has happened since it left the airwaves in 1971, including the fact that it's the only soap opera deemed worthy enough for a multi-million dollar film version more than 40 years later.
Gerard