I have 0 nostalgia, finished both RE4 and RE4R recently for the first time RE4 2005 last month and RE4R a few days ago. For me the OG is better. I'll write you a very long essay on why.

There are some things the remake does better but a few main points for me are combat feels very frustrating in the remake, there's less ammo, incentivizing the stealth system they added which I absolutely despise. Slowly moving up behind someone and one shotting them is mind numbingly boring and it feels required on higher difficulties because of how much less ammo there is in the game.

The terrible crafting system not only relies on RNG for bonus crafts but also means you're taking up a lot more inventory space than usual. It doesn't make up for how much less ammo is in the game at all. Grab attacks are genuinely awful, they're way too fast and there's no real way to counter them. "Oh just crouch" most of the time an enemy moves way too fast to realistically react to that. They deal damage frame 1 and are way harder to break out of compared to the OG unless you want to use knife durability.

Speaking of which, that on its own is insanely stupid. It makes conserving ammo which again, there's less of way way more difficult. My first playthrough I was starved on ammo the entire game on Standard. On my fresh Hardcore save I'm still slightly starved on ammo and that's even with the infinite durability knife. Combat feels more like it wants you to stealth and skip enemies rather than fight them which is completely contrary to the original, and is a style of play that I HATE with a passion. Stealth is boring and skipping enemies is lame.

Characters are almost all downgrades. Leon is way too broody and edgy rather than a goofball, it felt like they added his quips and dad jokes out of obligation rather than because they liked it. Salazar looks ridiculous and barely gets any dialogue, almost all of it was cut, and my God is his bossfight nothing but frustration. Incentivizes using an RPG on him far more than the original. There's 0 context for the Verdugo fight unless you played the original.

Saddler is the biggest downgrade of all getting basically 0 screentime until the end and being downgraded to a boring super generic bad guy instead of this cocky arrogant prick who was constantly bantering with Leon, even laughing at his jokes sometimes like when he mentions U3. Ada sounds genuinely awful I'm sorry but the audio sounds like it was recorded in a box and the VA sounds bored.

Ashley's character is whatever but her AI is far worse than the original, she's slow and stupid. In the OG she sticks to Leon perfectly and you could tell her to wait which you can no longer do outside of specific situations. After my first playthrough of the original I really didn't understand why people got annoyed with her, even now as I'm almost done with my first Professional playthrough I really don't get why people are annoyed with Ashley in the original, she's extremely good AI wise especially for that time, while the remake one is a moron who you tell to spread out and she goes and cowers in a corner 2 inches away from you and stands in front of you all the time. I have had more game overs due to Ashley in the remake than the original and it isn't even close Luis is the single exception to this being actually better in the Remake by far.

Leon is slow as hell for some reason, idk what exactly it is but especially after aiming he moves at a snails pace, sometimes making it impossible to go for a kick even if an enemy is only slightly out of reach. No longer walking and running at a consistent speed is super clunky, and he's just slower in general even at max speed.

Bullet spread is the most baffling design choice I have ever seen, and made the shooting range which should be fun into an irritating chore, especially with the TMP. Trying to 100% the shooting range is probably the single most infuriating thing I have ever done in a game. Using a pistol with the laser sight feels required imo otherwise the weapons are just way too inaccurate. Sway is crazy for some reason too, it existed in the OG but it was nowhere near this bad.

While I do like some of the new additions to areas a lot of what was cut is missed a lot imo. Things like the dragon statues room, or the Salazar statue room, or being able to choose between another El Gigante fight or the Bella Sisters, or the Laser Room are sorely missed for me. I personally enjoyed doing both sides after Luis' Cabin for a lot of extra loot.

They leaned a lot more into making the game horror and puzzle heavy instead of action movie esc I'm sure some people probably long time RE fans appreciate that but I don't really care for it. Puzzles can be boring for me, and never really cared for horror, though some of it was done very well like the first Garrador encounter or going to look for the big threat wolf in the Chief's Mansion.

So there you go, a very long list of why I personally enjoy the original more as someone with 0 nostalgia. RE4R's combat has frustrated me more than any game in the last decade. In the original when I took damage 90% of the time it was my fault. I got too greedy with knifing to save ammo, I should have moved sooner, that sort of thing, while in the remake most of the time I kind of feel like it was BS. As mentioned near the beginning the grabs especially are genuinely just unfair. Act 1 is the hardest part for me because Ganados grabs are just way too fast and most grabs feel un-reactable and their tracking is way too strong. Almost every single death I have in this game came from being grabbed and I truly feel as though the game would be better if they removed the grabs entirely.