I have a weird relationship with Persona 3. I played FES after Persona 5 a couple years back and thought FES hadn't aged well at all, and there was a lot to improve both gameplay- and narrative-wise. However, I did like the overall message of the game and the characters.

The devs of Persona 3 Reload stuck really close to the original ideas and barely changed the narrative. Remake still has a lot of awkward periods where you cannot really hang out with anyone from school cause it's holidays apparently. Female SEES members' social links unlock only upon reaching level 6 of each of the social stats.

This remake is probably the best they could do without striking the nerve of the fanbase by "changing too much". Tartarus is still a tall-ass tower, but it is far more fun to grind in Reload than in FES (don't even make me start on the lack of control over party members in the original). Even though I have said that narrative-wise I think it could be improved, especially the pacing which was left practically unchanged in the remake, the developers added hang-outs with male SEES members which are freaking amazing and on par with those of Persona 4 or Persona 5. With those, you can really see how well new stuff fits in and I cannot imagine the game without them anymore.

So, do I wish they had changed more? Yeah... But, I know a lot of people really love the original Persona 3 despite its cons. This remake struck the perfect balance between going berserk like FFVII Remake and sticking true to the original. The ending is still one of the most powerful in video games ever.