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The fact that it would be Eiffel running in to see her, not the other way around.
She sends him into space. She sacrifices her own best method of escape to save him. He sacrifices his to go back and save her. Where in the original finale, Minkowski has to grapple with the fact that she tried and failed to save Eiffel, in this version Eiffel has to deal with the fact that she was right. He didn't save her even when he came back; it made no difference. If he had gone back to Earth, nothing would have changed except the few last words she gets to say to him. For a moment, he thinks she was right all along, that going home would've been the best option. He couldn't have helped her anyway.
But he's wrong. On the Urania, headed back with everyone, Eiffel is the one who takes on the task of reteaching Minkowski who she is. Of course, he's reverent and kind and tells her what a wonderful commander she was, how sharp and determined and headstrong. It takes almost a month before she comes storming in, recordings in hand, demanding to know what he really thinks of her. It takes another few weeks for her to realize she has a husband, because in the chaos of adjusting, Eiffel never told her. By the time she makes her way through all of his logs, they're back on Earth.
Those two are so intertwined, I can't imagine a world in which Eiffel doesn't do everything he can to help her, and it breaks my heart-
Random thought to get thrown out into the void: what if Minkowski had been the one to get memory-wiped instead of Eiffel? What would that change, thematically?
It would lose the punch of the self-centered coward making the final sacrifice that it being Eiffel has. It has a touch of “captain goes down with her ship” about it. We don’t get as much time on her and Hera’s individual relationship as we do with Eiffel and Hera; what would a Minkowski-and-Hera final stand and goodbye look like? It could be interesting from an Eiffel perspective; Minkowski pushed him and taught him so much and now it is time for him to help lead her?
I don’t know. Interesting thing to think about though.
Okay I hate to say it, but WHY did they send in Eiffel and Minkowski to do the super important mission where the only requirement is that they make no sound at all??? They are perhaps, of the whole cast, the two characters that are least likely to NOT yap for any given period when together.