the movie which I though undid a lot of the character growth

Hard disagree. The plot of the movie is an unlikely, yet plausible occurrence. Doing what they did in the movie works as a nice sendoff to Violet’s story. Yes, I’m biased because the payoff is some of the happiest I have experienced in fiction.

spoiler

Just before the climax, Violet dealt with loss and resolved to finally move on from Gilbert. The Eternity and the Auto Memory Doll movie hinted that she wasn’t completely at peace with being unable to see Gilbert, based from her conversations with Amy.