Oh, ok, so it's NOT about outrageous changes then, just the copying part.

Listen, I still maintain that this thread should be redubbed into "good remakes vs. bad remakes", because this "theory" of yours seems to be very arbitrary, and ill-supported.

I still don't get why this categorical "theory" about the "fundamental wrongness" of redoing something. Yea, it can be easily abused by producers who want a shortcut, there are many ways it can go wrong etc., so why don't you talk about those things?

Nothing about this is "obvious", or "intuitive". A work of fiction, be it a book or a movie, isn't just "written and basta", it's not some kind of holy, homogenous entity that just "exists" and that's it.
It's made up of lots of general concepts, details, and creative decisions, all of which can be reworked and modified. What's so "absurd" about that?

Regarding King Kong, well, what did Jackson's contribute?
An expressive King Kong (as opposed to that cheesy smiling retard puppet), and lots of kick-ass horror scenes like the nasty natives, the penis polyps, the dinosaurs, and a badass manly captain who wasn't also misogynistic.

Not sure how to evaluate the movie as a whole, but it sure brought lots of kickass stuff to the table.

Regarding your question which movies could possibly "benefit" from a remake, well.
There are many movies that could be obviously IMPROVED, but then we're not talking about an innocent remake anymore, are we?
If it's just an innocent remake, the original doesn't have to "benefit" from or "need" it in any way, it'll just be another version.

Not to get all too lost in examples... hmm... could imagine a Matrix remake somewhere down the line.
There's lots of stuff in those movies that kinda takes away from the experience it might've been, like boring real wold scenes, nerdy and comicbook-like elements, some unintentional goofiness, some character disconnection, and all the storytelling mess that gets more and more obvious as we progress into the sequels.
All of which made it look less whole, and less seamless, then it could've been as a "finished product that, there, was already WRITEN".

Obviously, it would have to be DAMN GOOD.

12 Angry Men with Jack Lemmon and James Gandolfini was way cool (although I don't remember the original that well). Awesome characters, a black bigot. It was good.