Allow me to first say that I voted for Sonic 3, mostly because it's the one I've played the least.
For all you FF7 haters out there, we'll blow your planet up! We got Death Star, we got Death Star...Ahh...Weird Al...
Sorry, got a little side-tracked there. FF7 was not the perfect game all the fanboys make it out to be. It had it's flaws. However, most of them were outweighed by two things: 3D and the story/character interactions. The scene where Aeris dies is one of the few scenes in gaming that gets me damn close to tears every time I see it. This is because I identify with Cloud (though, after playing Crisis Core through, I have to say that Zack is more me then Cloud is) well. I thought the game was better than many I'd played before.
I'll admit, I'm a little biased. The only FF game I'd played prior to 7 was the Gameboy port of 5, and that game frustrated me no end (A common session would end with me yelling "STUPID F***ING GAME! THE F***ING DRAGON DOES NOT HAVE A GOOGLE HP! IT SHOULD BE DEAD BY NOW!!! GRRRRAAAAHHHH!!!!!!" and nearly throwing my Gameboy out the window). I think that FF7 was one of the greatest games of it's time. At the moment, I'd rather play Fallout 3 or Kingdom Hearts, because the industry has evolved to the point that 3D is no longer a major selling point (and is in fact assumed) and both Bethesda and the current Square Enix have better writers on staff now (at least in my opinion).
You are correct, however, in your judgement of the majority of the fanbase: they are to creepy otaku what creepy otaku are to normal gamers (I don't think I'm either a normal gamer or a creepy otaku; I'm somewhere in between).