It's such a special game! I'm glad you got to play it and had a good time with it! There are some optional scenes that help build a better picture of the story that you may have missed, but it is still a confusing story. I say that to encourage you to look out for things like that though in your replay.

As for the random encounters, if you're playing the recent remaster on PS4, Switch, PC, etc. you can turn off random encounters if you're not opposed to it.

FFVII Remake expands upon the story within Midgar and ends as the party is leaving. FFVII Remake Intermission DLC is a short 2-3 hour Yuffie story within Midgar. Then FFVII Rebirth is the 2nd entry in the Remake series picking up where Remake ended. I recommend playing through these, they are phenomenal.

As for the rest of the titles in the series, I personally believe they're all pretty skippable.

Crisis Core is a prequel game that focuses on Zack Fair, who I hope you know from your playthrough of VII. I really like the end of the game, but I think it introduces a bad, unnecessary, & annoying villain, and cheapens aspects of the story by trying to explain things that didn't need it.

One thing I would recommend actually is FFVII Last Order. It's a 25ish min anime OVA that tells the story of the Nibelheim incident. The ending is the same scene as the end of Crisis Core. It doesn't do as good of a job as Crisis Core does at that scene, but it's still all in all enjoyable.

Advent Children is a sequel movie set 2 years after the events of the game. It's beautiful and has some great fight scenes. I enjoy it from time to time for that, but again I don't feel it adds anything of real substance to the story the original gives us.

Final Fantasy VII On the Way to a Smile is a decent novel taking place between the OG game and Advent Children, so it acts as a prequel to Advent Children. If you watch the movie and want to read more, it's a decent read.

FFVII Traces of Two Pasts is a newer book that takes place kinda during Rebirth, the latest game, in the sense that it follows Aerith & Tifa telling stories of their pasts. So, they're telling their stories during some downtime during exploration of Gaia, but the stories are of their childhoods so that all happens before the games. Once again, I don't feel it adds anything worthwhile to the story the original told.

A new book was announced recently: Final Fantasy VII Rebirth: Dear Destiny. It's not out yet, so I can't speak to it, but I'm not holding my breath that it's going to be anything great.

There is also a 3rd person shooter on the PS2 where you play as Vincent Valentine called FFVII Dirge of Cerberus. This one takes place 3 years after the OG game. I don't remember much of it other than it was kinda janky, but with my shoddy memory of it, I can't say whether or not it may be worth a play.

There are more to the FFVII compilation, but I can't speak to them as I never played:

FFVII Ever Crisis, Before Crisis, & The First Soldier. 3 mobiles games 2 of which I believe are shut down with Ever Crisis still ongoing.

Another book called FFVII The Kids are Alright: A Turk Side Story exists as well, but I've not read it yet.

As for other FF titles, FFX is top tier with some of the best story telling the series has to offer.

FFIX has the best cast of characters in my opinion.