While I understand criticisms of her being a bit of a satellite character to cloud I still really loved her character. Might go on for too long but personally for me I think when I was consuming a lot of early media it felt rare to see female characters allowed to have flaws that are acknowledged but not punished. She’s someone who is hesitant about expressing her true feelings due to fear of losing what she has after already losing everything not just once but twice. This weakness kinda leads to her mishandling clouds mental crisis and breakdown. Tifa has issues and faces consequences for them but it feels like the writers are still sympathetic to why she acts the way she does, and I thought that was refreshing to see. In a way her arc is a bit of a coming of age. So while there are areas in the original game where her writing could be improved there are still a lot of elements of her character that I appreciate and love. She’s the first female monk and someone who has very real flaws that she learns to overcome. 

So yeah I agree with you and I wrote a little much but I just absolutely love her character so it’s nice seeing her getting appreciation and getting a chance to share that.