The Privateer Remake is the obvious proof that an updated version done by fans isn't necessarily a great idea.
Fans just plain don't know what makes a good game - they want as much as possible as quickly as possible. We still remember the huge amount of work we had to go through to deck out our Tarii specifically because it was a huge amount of work. This was not a *fault* in the game, it was what made it great. We still argue over which ship is best because they were specifically created to have tradeoffs and disadvantages. "Remaking" the game to "fix" this - adding amazing superships that are available after one or two missions and such, adding extra-profitable cargo runs, etc. - you're wrong.
The ability to code a pretty engine does not make someone a game designer. That's pretty much the only legacy of the Privateer Remake.
And lets be clear that while it's easy to bash the remake, this problem is not exclusive to cheap fan immitations. Consider the Wing Commander games as 'remakes' of the original concept. People wanted it to be easier to kill capital ships - so it is! People thought asteroid fields and minefields were too much work - out they went! Wing Commander III is much prettier game, a much more technologically impressive game than Wing Commander I... but a lot of the elements that make Wing Commander I worth discussing today were removed.
We continue to talk about Rostov because of all the rocks, we continue to talk about Kurasawa because it's nigh impossible... another disorganized, me-first remake would take these "criticisms" as things to fix instead of the things that made the game a classic in the first place.