The point of the list was that there are many changes (In rebuttal of someone else's post which seemed to claim that it was virtually the same)and many of your answers seem to confirm it; perhaps they seem trivial to some but I find that they disconnected me from the movie and kept me from enjoying it (... Besides the lame potty humour, the ridiculous-cliche army dumb-dumbs and the lack of gripping dialogues... but that is a whole other conversation).
To your answers I would only say this:
#1- Saying he "didn't have too" prove the point that it was a break from the original; plus If he had the power he wanted, why participate in rescuing Megatron? Doesn't fit the G1 character.
#2- The point was more that it didn't look at all like the G1 version (Another break); not even close. The "Go-Bot" comparison might be another debate all together but the bulky silhouette, to my opinion, is reminiscent of those bulky Go-Bots.
#3- I picked those 3 names because they really broke away from the original vehicular mode; I can concede that Optimus was a kind of truck, Jazz a similar sports car (Even if not the same) and star scream a Jet... I was being reasonable in my argumentation; pardon the laps in judgement! Again the point was the major break from the blue prints.
#4- Diaclones?... Who cares about the old diaclones? Did they make the spider-man outfit with the loose webbing underneath the armpits? No! Because even if it was the original design, the one we know best and identify to is the following, web-less costume we all recognise. But again that concedes that there was a change.
#5... Was skipped
#6- The Ark might not have had a name in the G1 series: But it still existed. There was a nameless ship, we now identify as the Ark. Name or no name: It was a part of the myth and is missing none the less from the movie.
#7- Happened to one decepticon... Happened to 2 dozen (+/-) autobots and Decepticon.
Crashed at the frigid pole... Crashed in a desert-like part of the USA.
Crashed by itself.... Crashed within the Ark.
Can you really tell me with a straight face that there is no difference; or even that the movie respected the spirit of the story line? I find that hard to believe.
#8- On a side note, I would ask: Why do they need to "Transform" if they can simply "Morph" into something else? It is 2 very different phenomenon. But, more to the point:
In the series, they were physically manipulated and changed into their new alternate forms; they were virtually rebuild. The scan was only to get blue prints to follow and mimic. When you see bumblebee suddenly changing from one model car to another one within a fraction of a second, it looks more akin to Merlin "poofing" himself into a rabbit, in the disney cartoon, then an actual, believable technology.
#9 ... Sometimes, to make a point understood, you have to "Go big"; hence the Wolverine example. But I guess we agree on that one: It makes a difference.
#10- Your right: Spike is not the best name out there and I'll even concede that it has always sounded like a nickname. But question, then: Why not use the nickname AS a nickname? Perfectly acceptable.
And besides, silly names are not uncommon in these sort of stories: Victor Von DOOM, is a good exemple. But regardless of whether we like them or not, again, the point was the break from the original.
#11- Aww come on dude! Everything else you put forward, even if I don't agreed with it, had some sound bases... But this one? The bonecrusher of the constructicon and the one from the movie were two totally different characters that had nothing to do with one another (Different). The Scorpinok of the series doesn't appear until way after Optimus' death and the movie version is not a head master (Different again). And Frenzy of the movie a boom box while the cartoon was a tape; ok, there and "audio" connection, but, still major difference... Plus the tape version did not laugh all the time like the psycho weasel from Who framed Roger Rabbit!
#12- ... skipped
Look: If those changes were good for you, then, precisely : Good for you! But on the pure argumentation of whether or not Transformers the movie was a good or bad adaptation of the original materials... Let put it this way: In the spectrum of bad to good adaptations, at one end you have "Sin City" and close to the other end you have Transformers. Try and guess which is at the Good end of the spectrum and which is not?
That is all I am saying!
Cheers!