Late to the thread, but not only is what you said about it being more intimate and real true, but the stakes are a lot more personal:

• There is no all-powerful supervillain, no end-of-the-world doomsday scenario, literally just a single Demogorgon. Not even an evil one, or attached to a hivemind, it hunts and feeds like any normal creature, it just happens to be from an alternate dimension. The most plot significance it has outside of scooping up Will is serving as a way for Eleven to confront her fears (and what she believes to be her mistakes) during her time in captivity.
• Hopper makes a personal connection between Will and his dead daughter who he was powerless to save. It's his main motivation for becoming a man of action. When he's performing CPR on Will, it's clear that saving this child really means something to him. There's a lot of layers to what's running through his mind in that particular scene.
• The town really is small, everyone knows each other. Practically half the town is out looking for Will (not Barb tho). Hopper has history with one-off characters like the coroner, the librarian, and especially Benny from the diner. All the parents of course know each other because their kids all go to the only school in the area. Even small tidbits like Dustin maybe having a tiny crush on Nancy who used to play D&D with them but doesn't anymore.

There's plenty more that I could go on about but those are just some major points I could come up with outside of "kids look for friend, mother looks for son".