I don't think Itachi will change, I think our view of him will change once the true reason for his actions was revealed.

I liked the jutsu battle additions to the 3rd vs Oro fight and quite enjoyed the Naruto vs Gaara one too. I liked the manga versions more though. That is what makes skilled mangakas what they are - with a only few black/white pitures they describe a lot more than the picture shows and built up a lot of tension.
They aren't cast in concrete like animes, your imagination has much more possibilities in mangas compared to animes. It's the old japanese thing - if you paint a detailed colour picture of a mountain that mountain will always be the way you painted it. If you use only a few black strokes so that the audience can tell it is a mountain, it will look differend for every viewer and every time they look at it, always finding new things they did not see before.