I think Jrpgs even being linear and in general not nearly as varied and as interactive as western rpgs have their strong points if they have a good creative team behind them.
And I think even with such differences alot more western rpg gamers could appreciate some Jrpgs in general more, embracing them as simply a different kind of RPG.
In my case I have somewhat fond memories of final fantasy VI and chrono trigger, the first "good" jrpgs I discovered quite a few years back, played them on SNES emu. And I can say I enjoyed them at the time.
The big issue for me is not so much the design philosophy differences, its the aesthetics, the sensibility of the people that create the games...the art direction, the style, the scripts....sometimes an interesting dialog/character or plot twist gets ruined or turned absurd by bizarre or out of place emotional feedback from the characters or apparentely childish bullshit.
Thats what creates the largest pit between the two genres in my opinion.
And I believe these aspects turns are what truly turns alot of western rpg gamers off regarding Jrpgs.
Its not essentially the linearity and the more basic combat approach among the other things... its that fucking bizarre japanese sensibility, or japanese rpg maker sensibility when making their games and creating their characters, scripts, models etc.
Sometimes Jrpgs feel plain silly and childish, other times just absurd and bizarre from a typical westerner point of view, not just a western
"gamer", any western person.