I've always said that DLP's Pirates is what WDW's SHOULD have been. If you're going to clone an attraction, at least make it as good as the original. And if you're going to clone a classic like Pirates at a park blessed with FAR more space, with it being a proven hit that you know your customers like and want already before you even build it, make it better than the original. In my book there's no excusing making an inferior version of a ride at a park that has immensely more space to deal with than Disneyland. Paris' version of the ride basically hits every note perfectly, the definitive version of the ride. It does everything right, taking all the best elements of every other version of the ride and having none of their shortcomings, AND it has some new improvements on its own.
Gotta say, I would not be against a sort of gutting of Pirates JUST to replace it with the superior version at Paris. I'll stand by the statement that POTC at Paris is a clear contender for my favorite theme park attraction on earth (at least in its state when I visited in the 90's). I've always loved WDW's Pirates and still do, but there's no denying ours is the worst version by far. Having been a huge WDW kid, it was quite a shocking eye opener to experience Paris', and what a great experience it was. Even watching those old Wonderful World of Color "making of" shows covering the grand opening of POTC in Disneyland I got to experience CA's version and saw how much better it was than WDW's (pretty awesome that they provided a full ride through in that video). So while i'm a still a big fan of WDW's POTC (and don't want it to close outright by any means), I've felt a very strong hint of disappointment at what we got ever since seeing CA's and Paris' and being spoiled by those.
I'm curious to see what Shanghai's version will be like. I'm expecting it to be even more like the films and use some new tech involving the way the ride system works. But i'm worried for reasons other than the films, I heard rumors there's going to be an emphasis on projected elements and less emphasis on actual physical sets or animatronic figures. As a huge fan of POTC and classic Epcot style rides, I don't really like the threat of projected scenes replacing real physical sets and animatronic figures. Hoping these rumors aren't true. Projections are fine when you want to enhance an existing scene (for example, big fan of digitally mapped stuff to add environmental elements to background elements), but not when you're replacing physical sets and figures out of laziness or due to budget.