to me it seems like Fire Emblem is going through a big change, it almost died, and now it's stuck with the dilemma of making an enjoyable game for veterans while trying to bring in a new audience to continue to breath new life into the series, i feel like they're experimenting with a lot of things to create a new balance for the series, i feel (or at least i hope) that after this trial period fire emblem will balance itself out and be a game we all can enjoy, but i don't by any means feel the series is dead, and i feel like this is still going to be a fantastic game (well, at least for me it will be). in time i feel things will improve.
as for the kids, i don't have any big problems with them, to me it seems like that they will be brought in with some parellel world spirit magic thing, and i am perfectly okay with that, i do hope they wont be seriously involved in the story though.