Yeah, this is sort of Animal Crossing Bells the way I have been looking at it lately. Much like, yes it introduced a few really great new thoughts in the way of outside decorating (which very much resembles the natural next step for the series) and the landscaping tools. The crafting system is a fairly nifty way to provide players kind of mini-goals. Not ideal but it is a fantastic idea.
And it's especially true for a series that is iterative for the most part. Very good features from previous games are nearly always brought to after games. The main exceptions are gimmicks based on the console or smallish features that are awesome but ultimately not match changing. NH ditched a lot of series principles which really hurts in the event that you've been a long time fan. I believe a good deal of the NH fans have not played the previous games so that they don't have these attributes to miss. That great for them but it feels hollow to me.
Why do Leif and Kicks just ever randomly visit? Why does the Museum only have description plaques for artwork now? What is up with all the public works items which didn't get turned into furniture? No Gyroids to accumulate? It's only a lot of little things that actually add up into big things.
Then I realized how much stuff was only straight up left compared to every single prior entry and I guess in hindsight I probably should have known that this was a"we'll finish adding outdated characteristics to the game after" sort of thing. It is not a terrible game, but boy does it pale in comparison to New Leaf occasionally. Also some of the holidays are actively less intriguing than their New Leaf counterparts. Fireworks festivals replaced all of the adorable Showa Era Nintendo toy furniture with bows, pinwheels, etc of Cheap Nook Miles Ticket varying colours.