they play the same.

the remake has better clearcoat on the playfield and better DMD graphics (if you spring for the color upgrade).

the original has the benefit of 20 years of service, so any and all issues are already well-known and there are solutions available.

the remake is run by a Beaglebone Black, which is a very cheap and easy part to replace. it's not a part that's exclusive to our niche hobby. there are literally millions of them out there, don't let anyone tell you they'll be hard to find down the road. However, it also has a bunch of custom boards that are more of a question mark simply due to the fact that we don't have 20 years of history on them yet. i haven't heard of many technical issues with them so far, though. if for whatever reason the company making them fails, the custom boards could be hard to find years from now.

the remake also comes with a warranty.

in my opinion, there's really only two reasons to go original over the remake:
1) you care about authenticity, or
2) you are worried about the boards on the newer game failing and not being able to replace them years down the road.

edit: 3) you don't like LEDs, or you really want to be able to customize your own LED choices.

that "plus fees" was probably another $1100, though, right? (20%?)