Depends which way you look at it. I wouldn't say that it's throwing the Replay away. It's an online game, it's infinite actually. ;)
Look at EverQuest, theres over 500,000 subscribers to it. And $10 isn't a lot. Unless you add on other games, other online games that you have to pay, ect. Most people that buys the game will be playing it for a while.
Anyway, I enjoyed FFVI more then FFVII. And theres been other RPG's that I liked over FFVII. IMO, FFVII is probably the most Overated FF game out there. That doesn't mean it's a bad game, I personally enjoyed it. But I don't think it's the holy grail of RPG's or whatever.