I disagree, the Yeti is just one part of the coaster, but the coaster itself is the same length. Honestly as a GP person before ever stepping foot into these boards had no clue it did more or cared it did more. It was and still is a really fun coaster.
The part of Kong that is strange to me and tells me something is wrong is they tell you "I will tell you when to put the glasses on", then you begin moving and right away pass by the outdoor section and are told to put your glasses on. It feels like something is missing. My husband didn't know it should go outside until after the ride and he thought it was odd to put them on so quickly. When I told him why then he understood more. So maybe if this is longterm they should have changed that bit a little.
You and others make a fair point about the length of the ride being shorter. If I wanted to take the Everest example a little further it could be like going straight into the lift hill from the station. To my point though and as you said, the average guest isn't going likely to notice these things right away (or if someone like us is with them and we'll point it out and more lol).
What you're pointing out probably wouldn't get so much attention if the ride wasn't in this situation for this long. Like Brian pointed out the problem happens to be at the start of the ride and that's in front so it's obvious but this was also designed to be skipped.
I believe at one point someone mentioned they might have to actually dig into the area to fix things, and if they do it might mean the ride's closed entirely to do it. That would be another reason why it hasn't happened yet, and could coincide with a refurb on the entire ride.
It's not just the door opening that makes the scene spectacular, it's the entire approach, fire and awe of a massive vehicle going outdoor before venturing in to a massive facade. Everest doesn't skip the entire Yeti coaster segment and honestly the disco lighting does a solid job at making it appear like its moving.
(Not to go too far into Yetiville in this thread...) Seriously though when the Yeti was fully operational it was legit scary. It benefited from multiple rerides to really get a sense of it since you'd know exactly where to look when it started its movements. I just looked at an older video and it looks like it was even continuously lit as it moved, which is how I remember it.
I'm glad I wasn't panicked by a giant AA Yeti coming off its foundations but man that would've been one hell of a story! I think if we're ever going to see the Yeti fixed it might be if and when they replace the coaster track.
Imagine skipping the city flyover on E.T., that's a more apt comparison.
In terms of iconic scenes or moments for the ride, I'm with you there. The difference is that the ET scene is in the middle of the ride which would be more like removing the dinosaur battle scenes in Skull Island (going by chronological order of the ride). Doing that would obviously disrupt the flow of the story.
The door scene while critical in building that sense of foreboding into the main ride, and certainly an integral part of the ride a whole, it's also one of the few times (only time?) where the designers built a way to skip it and if you didn't know about it before you aren't likely to miss it after riding it. At this point I don't think anyone here doesn't want the entire scene back 100% and it obivously wasn't meant to be a long-term solution; it just had to be for one reason or another.
All that said, Kongfontation had a lot more going for it in the physical set department and I wish Skull Island had more of that at least. That's probably another reason the first scene is so missed, it's one of the few compelete physical ones for that ride.