On a side note I can not fkin wait to see what they do with Vincent's transformations in the remake sequels. They nailed Ifrits design and the other summons and kept them faithful to the original.
I'm hoping they nix the BS DoC redesigns and revert to something that is based off the original transformations. You mention Ifrit, and yeah, if I'll give Remake anything of a compliment (there are things I dislike about it), it did pay attention to certain characters, most of the monsters and bosses, and say, "Yeah, we are going to use the original designs as the groundwork, the base, and try to keep true to that sense of style". Crisis Core, not the new one, but the PSP one, redesigned Ifrit to where he looked nothing like the FFVII one, but was just a "new" design:
Fire mane, hooves, horns that extend to the side and back, a thong, another of Nomura's tribal tatt-esque metal symbol on his chest.
FFVIIR team could've said, "We already have a newer Ifrit design in Crisis Core! We'll use that!" but no, they went out of their way to redesign Ifrit yet again to make him look more true to the original FFVII Ifrit:
Purple hair, horns extending up and back, brown ragged loincloth, purple leg/foot thingies (don't know what they are called), humanoid feet.
And with Crisis Core Reunion, they are ditching OG CC's Ifrit for FFVIIR's redesign.
You can see an ideology within the history of the Compilation where they got to a point where they wanted to distance themselves somewhat from the original by doing something new/different, be it bizarre new ideas for stories that take place in that world, or total redesigns of classic designs just for the sake of it. By the time of FFVIIR, it feels like they are at the point where they are saying, "Y'know, nah, I think the old look is better. We'll use the old, original style as the basis for the new look!".
Now, I only wish they did that with a lot of the Midgar/Slum NPCs. To me, they look more like they'd fit in in FFXV's world than FFVII. They need a slight punk edge and some 90s flair. One could say, "But, they are just modernizing the look!". That would be all and fine if it wasn't for the fact that Cloud and his team (Avalanche) retain their punkish/90s sci-fi look, as do all the important characters (Don Corneo, Kotch, Scotch, Johnny,...).