What you're asking for is called "revisionist history". If you could start from scratch today without either designation being in the past, sure, but what was done has already been done and can't be undone.
For those of us who were there "back in the day" (and probably some of the younger but more conscientious readers of automotive history), that would
ALWAYS feel "backward". The ZL1 was always about big torque and brute power first/last/always, while the Z/28 was about having a more even "balance" between adequate high-revving power and the other performance attributes.
Maybe it's the complainers who need to adjust their thinking and get past the dilution of the Z/28 name by its Z28 descendants (not that the Z28s were all
that bad
for their time).
The name doesn't make it any faster, although it absolutely is a nice move for those who remember the original Trans-Am series to have a completely worthy successor to the name once again. That said, calling this the ZL1 (with that designation's drag racing connotation) would be flat-out wrong.
Ultimately, the important thing is that a street-legal car as single-purpose and as close to affordable as this . . . is even being built. If it's too Spartan for most peoples' usual purposes and preferences, that's not really the car's problem. "Halo cars" aren't necessarily for everybody.
Norm