"Right, but in the novel, it's ALL personal, which makes me feel like the drama is more personal, too."

I think the personal motives do converge with the larger issue in the novel too - the Crows work with Ghost Face, which means they want to open the seal, which means they're destroying the world. Shen Wei doesn't say that in this scene, but it is still a thing. (And also the 'personal' issue is much bigger here to begin with - the Crows/yao do have an obligation and debt to Kunlun, he's not just a random person they happened to harm.)