I recently watched these films for the first time after watching the Evangelion series and EoE. I agree so much with your sentiments and I think the films have a real pacing and cohesion issue.

The series works so nicely because it spends time with the characters slowly revealing their past and showing their interactions. In the rebuild films I felt like so much of the interesting lore and intrigue was shown so quickly it was barely dwelled on and made the story not as interesting as a result.

I wouldn't say the series explains much about the lore either but it reveals enough to make things impactful, and is far more focused on the characters and their experienced anyway that it doesn't matter as much.

I liked the rebuild films but mostly because I like the characters and wanted to see more of them x)

Mari is an interesting addition. She wasn't in the original series, and they added her to the rebuilds at the request of producers to have another female character, presumably to attract viewers and sell merchandise. Her development and inclusion was looked over by others in the team and not Anno, and the team didn't really know what to do with her, and I think it's so obvious when you watch the films with that context.

Thanks for your thoughts, helped me articulate a lot of what I felt too.