If you think he said anything positive about the new ride, you weren't listening properly. Tony's extremely brief comment about the new ride was that he hopes the team behind Tiana are taking into consideration how the new scenes they create will interact with the existing ride system. Particularly the big drop. Even in a vacuum, that comment is one of concern, not a positive one. The broader context was tied into the commentary directly preceding that, in how they played up the fear of the big drop during the ride. Especially the lengthy discussion about the psychological fear the final lift was meant to convey. These are the same concerns many of us here have been expressing as well. He also tied it to his criticism for how Disney will often remove things without a competent replacement plan just because someone in the company doesn't like something.
If he had anything good to say about the ride, he'd have simply and clearly said so. The fact that he didn't even provide a generic "I think the retheme stands to be a quality attraction on its own" is very telling. He instead concluded with a word of warning/concern. As it stands, we already know from what Disney has revealed about the final lift that his warning is being ignored. It's quite apparent he's not only angry that they got rid of Splash, but that he's also not a fan of its replacement by any stretch. I'm also sure he knows a lot more about the project than any of us do.
If you still want to believe the team working on the ride will turn in a quality ride, then that's fine. As unreasonable as it is, I hope they prove us all wrong and do exactly that, because who wants the ride to be bad? But continuing to cling onto the idea that Tony is involved, or that he has a positive opinion about Tiana is ludicrous. Even my own source no longer believes this (and for what little it may be worth, last exchange we had, they also still believe the ride will be good in spite of this). I've admitted i'm wrong, it's time for everyone else who still clings onto this to do the same and move on.