I think that's a very premature conclusion. After all, we do not know the exact details of these features. The shop could be the exact same, or completely different.
Well, the quotes were from MMN. The comments followed the yashichi (a healing item) shpiel. Yes, it's all second-hand, I haven't read the NP article for myself yet, but it just sounds too suspicious to me. If they're selling E-Tanks again, they're doing it wrong. That simple.
Things like achievements and online ranking were never detrimental to the game, they only provoked replay value from those interested in it. If you don't like them, just ignore it.
Achievements, true, although they are annoying to completists who don't like to be told what play styles are and aren't praise-worthy, but that's all.
Leaderboards, at least the way 9 handled them, are a bit different for those of us who pick the game up at release. Top 10 worldwide is a pretty unrealistic goal, but the more insane among us will try for our fifteen minutes of fame. The fact that the game rubs your completion time in your face at the end of every play through doesn't help any. The focus turns to physics-exploiting your way through the game rather than enjoying it, seeings how never before has MegaMan been about speed-running and a great deal of it revolves around pause screen manipulation (a specific time-attack mode is one thing, but this should not be going on in the game's default mode). This continues until eventually, someone scores an insane enough time (probably through hacking,
case in point) that the rest of us no longer care.
The fact that the leaderboards ignore Hero/Superhero/ProtoMan modes is comforting, but their release was delayed too long so you still had to put up with Normal while you waited. As a matter of focus, the default game mode should not be ranking you based on clear time, especially not clear time alone. Time Attack, a separate mode devoted to it specifically, works just fine.
In terms of sliding/charging, I don't consider their lack any different quality wise than their presence.
When auto-spawning enemies very nearly match your walking speed, I disagree. Sliding was a way to move quickly. MM9's flower pot missiles made me miss it a LOT. ProtoMan is some consolation, but the fact that you get the tradeoff of double damage/knockback is far from appealing.
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