@ohmu I think, I don't recall having an issue with what they had to change because of licensing, and I had no issue with some of the pop-culture additions.
It was more of, the spirit of the characters in the book don't match or aren't as important as the spirit of the same characters in the movie.
The movie may tell the same story, but somehow it does not have the same weight that it had on the page.
And it could be just as you say, the nostalgia hits different.