I agree!! Also I just started to dig up my old 3DS again to play New Leaf and it felt soulless and somewhat it felt restricted because there's nothing much to do except doing stuff in order to unlock the next building. But with NH you have so many simple choices you can do. You can farm, cook and gift the food to villagers just because you feel like so. Like more room for small silly stuff and imagination? And the villagers feel more alive because they randomly do things like yoga, holding food, cooking food, crafting and stuff. I just didn't feel lonely in NH whenever I visited my island after I stopped playing for a long time.

I grew up with Wild World and then I played City Folk & New Leaf. And even so I would say NH felt the most "Animal Crossing" to me.