The "stop getting mad over gameplay tweaks, you just hate change" is funny. It's like some people can't fathom others having issues with specific changes they are making.
While of course, those are big elements, I'd actually argue that what Guilty Gear's primary identity is driven by the gameplay of it's most popular entries, the XX and Xrd series. While I'm not an expert (I only started learning and playing Gear a lot within the past year) I believe GG's identity is based on fast, fluid movement, a gatling system that allows for combo experimentation and improv in neutral (air combos in general), strong air game and aerial mobility, and importance on oki and defense. Gear, to me, is about strong offensive options met with strong defensive options. I believe the type of fighting game GG has been in the XX and Xrd series is just as tied to its identity as the heavy metal aesthetic or Sol Badguy.
Strive is removing basically all of that. At least in the previous build, people could say "well the movement looks like Gear at least." But now we have no chip kills, drastically changed airdash utility, speed and timing, heavily restricted gatling system, no air combos, decrease emphasis on oki, no corner, heavily reduced utility of Faultless Defense (air blocking for free lol), reduced utility of Instant Block. I think it's very reasonable for fans of the series to be frustrated with the direction.
I only started learning GG in the past year, but these changes are removing a lot of the reason why I came to the game in the first place.
