I am presuming your gf was around in the 80's or early 90's, otherwise I might have to call someone.
But anyway, nostalgia is a powerful tool and tints vision. Same reason why they used to wheel out Andy Griffith, to make that generation feel more relevant and loosen those purse strings.
The parks do not need to be all thrills, but they do need to have good, modern rides. SSE was great but now it is showing its age and the refreshes can only do so much. It isn't in any danger of being replaced since it would require such major work that it would be cheaper to knock the whole thing down and build a replica. The biggest problem that the old rides have is they do not tell a story to you but rather at you, giving the feeling that if the car were empty the ride would have the same experience. Things like randomizing results in RSR, different ride experiences in ST, etc. give the rides some level of re-visit value. They are trying on SSE with the interactive portion to cover the dead sections going in and out of the ride, but it doesn't mesh well.