Don't forget a major character of Shadow of Mhach, Cait Sith, is most famously associated with FF7 as a party member.
"I prefer raids tied to the lore like Crystal Tower" which was lifted, along with many of the relevant NPCs (including ones simply named in the distant past) from FF3. Just like how Eden was heavily influenced by FF8, even if it neither were blatantly called a collaboration or crossover and were built to be part of the FF14 setting and story.
(I stopped entertaining speculation when pre-Endwalker was a lot of "because the moon is a major factor they're going to be repeating the plot of FF4" which was very untrue, though there's plenty of FF4 influence in earlier expacs, EW, and EW's void arc patch story.)
The collabs are hit or miss for sure (I still think NieR ended the story poorly; I have pals who loved Ivalice cuz of their affection for Tactics and/or FF12, while others couldn't stand its wordiness; I think Vana'diel's done a decent job of grounding the problem in 14's world while giving homages to 11), but 1 that's often subjective, and 2 the original raids are also hit or miss (Myths of the Realm had no real bite to it and skimmed past what potential it did have; I enjoyed the heck out of Arcadion's wrestling soap opera story).
FF14 is the theme park love letter to the rest of the series. It's got references galore, and like all other FFs, reuses character names, concepts, and other material that is in common with prior FFs. Sometimes they're just more blatant about it, like when it lets them work with another team who's sharing some of the development load.
This is about timing, and marketing for both games, and was frankly inevitable since the moment FF7 Remake was first announced, regardless of how well or badly internet armchair theorists think the game is doing.
Also, I really doubt the CEO would have been so easily convinced to give more budget and manpower to a poorly performing game, regardless of how much he himself loves it or likes Yoshida, as there's other people (board members, shareholders) to convince of the investment, too.
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