Evangelion's rebilt was much better than the original. The new format cut out most of the empty chatter, leaving enough scenes of everyday life in the city on the surface, which provided the lion’s share of the pleasant atmosphere of the original.
Shinji remained a whiner, but now he has been given a little less timekeeping, and it's not so infuriating. Ray got more character. In general, where you need to correct, the bad was removed, the good was left.
Differences with the original story are minimal.