As someone who knows exactly what you mean with that comparison and has played through most of both series; it's not something to worry about like with SMT. The biggest downgrade going from Sky remake to the next part of the series is visuals, not gameplay QOL. Even then, it still looks great.

Blasted through and basically complete the game in 40 hours. Difficulty is a bit too low for High rank - basically the only real threats for me were the octopus monsters due to them being entirely new. I also wasn't utilising the full kit so it should have been easier. They need to nerf weapons.