This reminds me of two related arguments, though both spill over into the accessibility space a bit. The first is controllers, and the other is subtitles.
Is it an important part of revisiting a game to play it with the original controls, on the original controller? Like OP alludes to with dual analog shooters. To what extent is there some kind of moral imperative to stick to things as they were, even if you'd get more joy out of it if the controls were just a little less awkward?
I think the complacency described here is also common with subtitles. There are of course many reasons to use subtitles (watching something in not your best language/dialect, hearing difficulty, ADHD even) but it's often assumed to be the default as if it doesnt completely change the way you experience a piece of media (game, show, or movie) because youre locked in om the bottom 15% of the screen the entire time.
I just played through Halo CE for the first time, finished it yesterday! I just started Halo 2 today and the uptick in quality is kind of crazy. It's also been a great use case for controller+gyro.
I can't help but feel (from only the first mission to be fair) the enemy ai is much dumber than in CE. Is that just me?