Even without involving the writing, the original did a lot more to flesh characters into feeling like actual living "people" with their own lives and existence outside of you.

They got tired, they got sick even if you pushed them too hard, they made their own decisions in battle that clearly showed their personality through it. All those things removed for "quality of life" ended up turning them into just extensions of the MC and regular JRPG NPCs instead of a team. Yeah it was frustrating and added a lot of difficulty but, as P4/P5 have shown, the game becomes a fucking joke of a cakewalk without it.

And yeah, as you said they had their own lives outside of you to the point where all the guys didn't have Links at all. Which is especially important for Junpei as he needed to be a man without you to get over his insecurity. The new "Links" they added for your guy team are actually pretty cool and fun, but still contribute to taking away from the overall experience.

Its truly hilarious that they've "remade" the game three fucking times now, and only the very first one got it right. Sure Reloaded is more "fun" to play, but it loses the charm and writing that made people love it to begin with in exchange.