Haha fair enough. Visually, the movies are unquestionably fantastic. I also agree that the direction the third movie went in was quite novel. Yet I think you may have forgotten how transcendentally different the original series + EOE were. The character focus was also much, much stronger. A lot of things are missing in the Rebuilds - Misato's relationship with her father, for one, which naturally changes her relationship with Shinji. It has all become rather shallow in the Rebuilds. The central aspect of NGE - the peculiar character psychoanalysis - is also completely absent. And in many ways that was what truly made NGE special - without that it's just a show about cool-looking robots fighting cool-looking Angels in an amazing visual spectacle.

I guess to take a solitary example - episode 16 is a great case. Visually, this episode is amazing (particularly the end, damn), but what makes it so special is the absurdly long trippy dialogue that occurs between Shinji and the Angel (represented by his younger self). That kind of sequence could just never happen in Rebuild, but sequences of that kind are what fundamentally elevate NGE above other genre works.

Edit: Also there are too many damn Evangelions in Rebuild, for real.