goku Shinji
?
If you mean Shinji at the end of 2.0, that's nothing different from what Eva has always done, playing with mecha genre expectations (and it worked too).
Whenever it tries to do something original, we get a drop in quality
I'd argue the Ramiel fight is overall better in Rebuild, the whole cooking subplot was new and would have fit pretty nicely in the NGE action arc, most action sequences were new and really good, same goes for new creature design, like the berserk Eva-02.
Mari is just a joke character in one scene. Giving her more importance than that is buying into the marketing of the film, that was trying to sell it to otakus with a "glasses girl" (I don't know if that's an actual term lol).
3.0 NTE tries to be orginal, and fails spectacularly
How so? It treated new issues (still relevant to Eva's themes) and used the film itself very well for that, equaling the sudden change and unexpected twists to Shinji's isolation, confusion and "homesickness".
leaving us with a Micheal Bay flick
Does action equal Michael Bay now?
Bay wishes he could do action as well as anything in 3.0.
with shoehorned story twists
Which ones?
lack of depth or development present in any of these events
The film has kept people talking for five years, and I stilldiscover new things about it.
Lack of depth looks different to me.