Looked at a few posts - nobody is down on this game? Across GC, WW, CF, and NL, the one constant I had was talking to villagers. Online was fun too after the GameCube.
There is nothing to do in New Horizons. 2 villagers instead of 5+. They have one sentence to say instead of 3+. Half of your total conversation time is just getting them to say something. The one sentence they say per interaction isn't interesting. Because there's only 2 villagers, there's way less chance to see other villagers interacting with each other, which gave the game flavor. The NPC tally is dismal.
GC:
5 villagers
Tom Nook
Able
Sable
Blathers
Side characters:
Copper
Booker
Pelly
Phyllis
K.K. Slider
Rover
Porter
This game has...
Tom Nook
2 nephews with the same personality
2 villagers
Dodo
Blathers (after you get the museum)
Gulliver (dunno what triggers him)
I'm guessing more characters will show up over time but this is dismal first impression. AC was already a light-touch game so there isn't room to go lighter.
"Play online", you might say. Online hinges around having stuff to do. In the old games I could hang out in the cafe, talk to 5+ villagers in a neighbor's town, buy stuff from Nook, see the museum, and check the observatory. All *on top of* what you can do in this game: fish, catch bugs, and once you get the pole, see the other half of your starting town.
You can say all you want that it's just a social sim, and what you do doesn't matter, but that excuse doesn't work in 2020. There are hundreds of free to play games where you can hang out and talk to friends. Outside the f2p space, Terraria, Stardew Valley, and Minecraft all seem to eat the lunch of the first few days of New Horizons - and I don't even particularly like those games.
As a near-lifelong fan of AC, this one hurts. I got a peek at what's coming to my island in the next day or two and it doesn't seem like it's anything major.