People realize FFXII came out in 2006, right? Since then, FF has been mismanaged to hell and back: FFXIII was a poor effort, and proceeded to become a subseries that would define the franchise's presence on last generation consoles; FFXIV ended up becoming an incredible success story, but not before being a complete disaster; Versus XIII was perpetually in "please be excited" territory; and then you had things like All the Bravest further diminishing the brand.
In addition, we've had games like Witcher 3 come out, and JRPGs have diminished overall.
So this "whelp, what happened to the FF brand?" sentiment strikes me as quite strange. It's been awhile since FF has been so prestigious, and the competition has both changed and become more intense. The point that FFXV failed to be another FFVII is well taken, and seems to be true enough, but that's a very narrow standard to judge it by.
The franchise has been struggling to adapt, has been losing relevance, for around a decade. FFXV seems to represent a step forward, and establishes a solid foundation to build on. Personally, I would be pretty happy with that.