well, idk man, they were GOING to blow up the reactor anyway, they just didn't think it was going to be that powerful
who REALLY KNOWS how dangerous it would have been with mako and shit blowing up. wouldn't it ALSO be fucking poisonous to the people around?
i mean, at least the remake shows in the beginning "holy shit, look at what this all caused, but we can't turn back now!"
i know the reveal is kinda stupid and annoying, but its more like shinra HELPED them, boosting avalanche's ego and also giving shinra more good PR for them, labeling them terrorists "oh, look at what devastation it caused, damn terrorists".
its only because we get more into this shit that wasn't even in the OG game. though, there is kinda annoying shit like "why isn't everyone else pissed off in the slums more earlier?", it isn't until the fucking plate falls that they do have that backlash and really, rightfully so, they should have had more sector 7 survivors hating them because "look at what your shit did" not just the whole barret owning up to it, "yeah i did it" but REALLY hurting the group because LOOK AT WHAT THIS COSTED YOU.
it should have been more like "well, everything else happened, maybe we should leave midgar for a while, let things cool down".
because them being avalanche doesn't really do much post midgar in the OG game, its just barret being mad at shinra and everyone else is tagging along. cloud has his stake in this because "shit, steepen is back and going to do more bad shit", aerith wants to know more about her fucking race, tifa i guess wanted to just protect cloud from the eventual truth he'd find out about and.....red 13 was kinda there, his plot is finished in cosmo canyon, turning into "ill help save the planet too!". kinda sucks for him, no more character development.
and stuffed animal man wants to make up for midgar shit....meh.