It's good that Netflix's Cowboy Bebop's rather disappointing reviews, the Netflix show made the right decision to change as much as it did.
The original Cowboy Bebop revolutionized anime by tackling complex themes like loneliness and existential dread while also blending genres such as science fiction, western, and noir films. It became one of the most popular anime series of all time and helped popularize the medium in the United States and elsewhere by serving as a gateway to anime as a whole for countless people. The decision to create a live-action adaptation was met with a lot of skepticism partly because of the original anime's success, and also due to the failures with live-action adaptations of other works in the past, which never quite recreated the magic that made the original stories so popular. So why was it a good thing that Netflix's Cowboy Bebop chose to make so many changes to the anime?
The live-action Cowboy Bebop series needed to stand apart from the original. Showrunner André Nemec explained (via Polygon) that they didn't set out to recreate the anime, “but to live in the spirit of the anime.” By drawing on the core elements of the original series, Nemec sought to tell new stories within that universe so that viewers already familiar with Cowboy Bebop would be guessing right along with those watching for the first time. Although many of the creative decisions didn't go over well with audiences, it was still a good choice for the show to heavily deviate from the source material because there's no point in watching an exact copy of something that has already been made. If Netflix had perfectly recreated the original series, then audiences might as well have just re-watched that version instead.
Cowboy Bebop's changes to the anime also allowed room for additional seasons or spin-offs within that universe. The original show, despite its success, only ever made 1 season since the director believed that brevity best aligned with the spirit of Cowboy Bebop. However, by changing the ending and expanding on Julia and Vicious' story, the live-action series created the possibility for a largely expanded narrative. Although, at the time of writing, Netflix has not greenlit a season 2, Cowboy Bebop's many unresolved storylines have laid enough groundwork that future projects could return to the world and explore new angles or even introduce new characters altogether.
Despite its lukewarm reception, Netflix's Cowboy Bebop made the right decision by deviating from the original anime as much as it did. To do otherwise would have been a disservice to the beloved anime as well as to everyone involved with the live-action series. More than anything else, adapting a work provides the opportunity to revisit a creative project in a new light and either expand on or transform it into something worthy of standing on its own.