What I find deeply concerning is not the distortion of the pristine original state of James Bond. What I find deeply concerning is the whitewashing of cultural artifacts and the implications of both the intent of such actions and the potential outcomes. The quality of the content itself does not reduce the cultural popularity and impact that the content had in its time, and altering the content can only cloud any modern examination of the past.
Old content that ages poorly should do just that - age poorly. We should look back at it and roll our eyes and wonder what we were thinking. We should draw conclusions from this more modern examination that help guide the creation of future content that doesn't perpetuate the same problems.
There is no progress without reflection and a place from which to move forward. And this quickly turns into a "First, they came for..." type of scenario, IMO.