Holy hell, this took me around 5 tries to finish in the span of several months. One thing of note is that I've read dozens and dozens of VNs, so I'm used to slow starts and a lot of SoL before the true plot begins, but it is the absolute worst here for me.

For me, good slice-of-life in a VN has to be one or more of:
1) funny (ex. Majikoi, Little Busters, Grisaia no Kajitsu)
2) meaningful with characterisation or themes (ex. White Album 2)
3) relaxing/atmospheric (ex. Mahoutsukai no Yoru or slice-of-life anime like Bocchi the Rock)
4) all of the above (ex. Utawarerumono 2 and 3)

And Higurashi 1 and 2's SoL isn't any of these. I can't speedread because I keep expecting some important info, so I end up fully focusing on school club, maid cafe or Satoko classroom prank moments, expecting some kind of reason for that, but getting no payoff. It was a lesser problem in Onikakushi because there were fewer lengthy stretches of it, but in Watanagashi it was so dull and boring that I, who usually has no trouble binging entire VNs where the beginning is a lot of SoL before the true story begins, had to take numerous breaks, eventually finishing this arc. When you're used to people shooting each other into the stratosphere for jokes, having unhinged humour or genuinely relaxing and/or thought-provoking conversations in SoL from the numeous VNs you've read, this is bound to not be very impressive. When you have someone who's read as many VNs as I have, the fact that I struggled to continue this is worth mentioning.

Yes, the last part is good. Yes, the psychological stuff is pretty good (though I'd argue not as good as in Onikakushi, it's often drawn-out). Yes, arc 3 is better than this so far. But it's just less impactful when my enjoyment was impacted this much by other elements of the story. And so I have had Higurashi stalled for a very long time just because of this one arc.

Also, I want to talk about Higurashi's weird lolicon tendencies in this one. If you've seen my profile or know me, you know that I personally dislike sexualisation of characters in media, let alone young-looking ones, and I expected better from Ryukishi after reading Umineko and assuming that this kind of shit was anime-original for the Higurashi anime. It's a big reason why I read the all-ages version of an originally eroge VN if it doesn't impact the story negatively. I'm not 100% on which of these are console arc inclusions (if any), however not only is Irie weird, but there is also a scene where Keiichi is comparing Rika's (an elementary schooler's) chest to another girl's. WTF. It's really weird to see this when When They Cry (and there weren't many occurrences of this in Umineko, Onikakushi and Watanagashi alone have already surpassed it in terms of times this happens), because they're often cited as "non-weird VNs" in some circles, but then you have this, or other instances where you would be fully justified in considering Ryukishi to be a l*licon (I've seen the Higurashi anime years ago, so I know a few other instances, and IIRC they were approved by Ryukishi or in the original novels).

Overall, I think I would think more highly of this if it wasn't dragged down by the issues I mentioned.