One thing FW did well was make me care more about the human characters. I adore the original but found the Carja plotline secondary to ploughing through the Zero Dawn mystery. The backstory Guerilla has built for these games is incredible and I am never satisfied reading about it.
FW leant more into its human characters and was stronger as a result. The Zeniths didn't get much screen time but their satire was on point.
It also has the best post-game scenario I have played since Fable 2. Being able to go back and continually explore post-credits is a better way of doing things than dumping you right back at 2 seconds to midnight.