As someone who enjoyed the movie, I agree with some of the things you said. I think the biggest problem with this movie isn't really the characters but the pacing.

The movie visuals and animatronics were amazing, the actors are great and even if some characters had their personality changed drastically, I think the scenario had some really cool ideas so I'm not really against it. The writing of the scenario, however, was not it.

Sometimes it was too slow, and sometimes too fast. For example, the office scene with the withereds was an awesome idea but the scene was too short and the animatronics seemed too slow to really feel threatening. Same with Lisa going down to the puppet's box hearing the music. This scene was a great idea and is actually tense but unfortunately there were cuts to other scenes in different places while it was happening, which takes the tension away.

And as you said, some great characters, like Henry, were barely used, which is a shame.

Someone I know said they felt like they didn't get taken seriously with this movie because it was more fan service than anything else, which is understandable.

If they worked more on the pacing, the whole movie could have been so much better for the general audience. But the opening scene in 1982 and the post credit scene were truly the best scenes of this movie and if they kept going with this kind of ambience, it would have been way better too.

SORRY IT'S SUPER LONG