I think the financial and technical constraints contributed to T1 being a better overall movie. Of course, filmmakers will always take as many resources as they can. But while in theory it should make them better able to convey a creative vision, in many cases the evidence of films where filmmakers had less tend to be better than when they had more. Again, my opinion, but off the top of my head I would say Lucas, Cameron, Spielberg, Neill Blomkamp, and Sergio Leone fit into this group. Similarly, I've seen it with lots of musical artists.
I like T-1000, but it never felt to me like he was a genuine threat to John. And I'm not saying that Terminator or Alien are cheese-free, they just seem like completely different entities to my eyes, for different reasons. The characters in Alien come across to me as more genuine than characters have in nearly any other a sci-fi or horror movie. Not the case in Aliens, though I actually prefer Aliens. In Terminator, the characters seem rougher, the humans more flawed and vulnerable, and there is an ugly, unpolished aesthetic, fitting for a horror movie. In T2, the characters seem more polished and attractive, the escapes seem more fanciful, there are more moments for the audience to cheer on, as fitting for an action movie. No dead cat smell when T2 T-800 got shot up, for example. Put all that together, and the story-based connections seem less significant to me. Similarly, it's hard for me to really think of Evil Dead and Army of Darkness as really telling different parts of the same story. They are night and day.
I've never said that T2 is unsuccessful as a movie, or at what it sets out to do. I like T2 a lot. My criticism, if you want to call it that, is that it, and the T-800 in it, are extremely different from T1, and aren't in the same spirit. So ultimately, my criticisms are based on my perception that they don't naturally fit together as parts of the same franchise. But when I'm in the mood for a fun, somewhat intelligent action movie, T2 is on my list of options with movies like Die Hard and some of the Star Wars and Indiana Jones movies. But I wouldn't watch T1 when I'm in that kind of mood.
While that's clearly the intention, I don't see it that way because he never feels like he's the same character from the first scene. Sure, he "would" have killed those guys when John stopped him, but he didn't. For the purpose of the story, and the relationship the audience was building with that character, there was no chance it was going to happen. As an audience member, you know it's not going to happen at that point. Again, Cameron is pretty deliberate about this IMO, and it's great for the story he is telling, but the menacing killer T-800 never really exists in T2, and couldn't exist for the audience to empathize for, and cheer for him as they did.
Yes, but they came out nearly a decade after the film, so I don't know if that counts. Alien actually had a toy line planned, but they were scrapped when Kenner realized the type of movie they were based off of. I don't think Cameron considered young kids a major demographic for Aliens, but maybe teens, sure.
The arms were too short and the legs didn't move 
I love T1, but I prefer T2. Without T1 there's no T2.
