Your vision is sacrificed for what the audience/clients want? And who is the audience in this scenario, and when will the filmmakers hear from them? The potential GA is almost infinitely larger than this group of people you are referring to imo. If you want something that is going to cater to you as an audience, go out and make it, but don't assume to take ownership on something that's in fact going to be presented to the world(literally). This claim that your opinion is more sacred if you will, under the mantle of 'we the fans' is interesting. What makes it more valued than my opinion, I'm a life long comic book reader and I've bought a few F4 books(mostly during the Liquid era), does that now mean my opinion or wants has some majority share? I'm one of these important clients that has given my patronage(to marvel, not fox btw) so my rantings need be addressed?
You talk about not disrespecting the so called 'devoted' fanbase, I ask what qualifies as disrespect. For I see the term thrown around every time a change is made 'fans' don't like. Yesterday, removing superman's shorts is disrespect, tmr it's a skin color change. You play so fast and loose with the term it loses meaning. Save it for when it matters imo.
The real trouble is, why is it ok for such changes to occur in, incanon comics but in movies(which are elsewords by definition) it's an issue. I can only imagine if Nick Fury was made black before the comics said it was ok, and by fox no less...
As for a visual medium. Comics aren't paintings on church ceilings. They are built on context, and scripting as well. It's why you can have a book like Kingdom come fully celebrated, context!
Old man logan, magneto in an xmen uniform, this new Bruce Timm animated stuff.
Fans need to allow for context to be considered before going rabid at stuff that really doesn't matter. Or at least weigh what it is that actually matters before crying foul. Especially before the fact.
That's what I think anyways.