Oh dear; did you set your expectations a bit too high? The starters of Kanto are the starters of Rijon until Coolboyman explicitly changes them in Brown. Let's see now. The ability to get Eevee so early is something already set in stone because that's where the same building is positioned in Brown. Same case with the fossils.
I find myself stuffing more content in the end, anyway. Stuff may seem "similar", but more often they're just copies of the original Pokémon formula; gym leaders of course have similar scripts. With FireRed, you're talking about a game that's pretty devoid of full-on scripting anyway (which isn't the case with Ruby and Sapphire, and Emerald) so making comparisons might be a bit over one's head.
No less, I appreciate the idea that you'll continue playing, and I don't disagree with your criticisms to a limited extent. (Oh, and turn the volume up as you play.)