I really love the lyrics in this version, especially Simba's verse, though I'd like for Simba and Nala to swap verses

Nala is being all flirty with Simba, then she wanders off and her lyrics are about how she must go and how she doesn't want to know him? What? xP In my mind it'd make a lot more sense for Simba to sing that.
And I agree that the intro is much too long. It's a very long sequence of just... "silence". I love the waterfall at the very end though. They could've cut out Timon and Pumbaa's final bit, kept the waterfall and made it a stunning finishing shot <3 But then again... I suppose you'd then need a short scene with another character to be able to cut into Simba and Nala's argument scene later and what would happen in that one...?
Bah, alright, the original version is much, much better than this one

To use this early version I think you'd need to make too many changes to the scenes around it. These lyrics really are wonderful though.