I'm on the fence with Kensou. The XIII style takes a long time to get used to, but it has a lot of potential. Part of me welcomes the old moves, but I'm cautious about it since in all honesty you can get more work done with XIII Kensou then a '98 one. He's one of those I look forward to playing right away to make up my mind.
Both 98 and XIII are polar opposites from each other. Missing his command grab (that has no animation in 98) and has better normals in 98 (ex. s.C+D,s.B,c.D,s.D). Watching the EVo build clearly shows his projectile is weaker in XIV compared to 98 . 98 fireball gave you positive frames, jaled and even at times can be used as an anti-air. They took both kensous and combined them but left out the majority of what made kensou good in either of those games. Kensou is clearly incomplete, especially compared to the rest of the Physcho soldier team.
I think Polar opposites is a bit harsh. True rekkaing the HCF+P move changed properties drastically. Instead of looking for a high damage from the start Kensou tended to play safer, but dolled out less damage. However if you know what you are doing you can use the rekkas for the most part just like the 98 version (at least the LP version). It costs HD meter but you can even finish it the same.
As for the normals XIII Kensou works better from a medium range distance then '98 Kensou. It's true '98 is stronger and has more normal options up close, but Kensou's DP+P and the option of canceling Rekkas offset less normal options for the most part. Plus Kensou's Reverse DP+K is way more powerful in XIII then '98.
It's all in how you approach the character. It seems you don't like XIII Kensou compared to older style Kensou. If that's the case no matter what I explain is really going to matter because you have to understand what you got to appreciate it.