I disagree completely, and this is why:

1. On controls, the original trilogy definitely has MUCH better controls, not even an argument. The newer games are slower, heavier, and laggier than the originals. Not to mention there was that bizarre 'shake the Wii mote' gimmick control method that they put in Donkey Kong Returns, that really made the controls annoying and slowed down the game tremendously.

2. You bring up higher technology, but despite that, the environments and models of the originals still end up being prettier than the new ones. Despite all of that extra power and polygons put into the new games, the are arguably not as pretty from an artistic standpoint. The newer games end up having this washed out looking flash style graphics. The 20 year old originals went with a stylized artistic approach based on claymation, which give the world ta lush waxy sheen. The original trilogy look much more colourful and much more lively, and they achieved this over two decades ago on 25 year old hardware:

When Donkey Kong Country came out on the SNES, it was groundbreaking. DKC Returns is pretty meh, and the latest struggles to come close to some Indie titles, like Trine.

3. The Kremlings were WAY better than the weird drum things with wings in  or anything from DKC TF. What is it with that weird cylinder end boss thing? King K-Rool was WAAAAAAAY better than that.

4. Speaking of K-Rool, it's that sort of comedy that makes the original trilogy much more charming on top of just all around better. In Donkey Kong Country he was a King on a Pirate ship, in DKC2 he was a pirate in a Science lab, and in DKC 3 he was a scientist in a castle. Instead DKC Return gives you this boring piece of wood as an end boss:

5. Despite the extra tech, they didn't really use it to add variety over the originals. You got the rhino back, but that was about it. it was definitely lacking here.

6. Also, memorable levels? In the original game, you start out with that beautiful jungle level, followed by the dark thunderstorm level where you swing along the vines like Tarzan, before heading to the first underground level with the bouncy tires, then the underwater level where you meet the swordfish for the first time, then the level with all the barrel blasting that was fast enough to even make Sonic fans jealous... Just about every single level across the first two games were memorable, and the third game had that really cool opened up way of moving around the map, which had hidden secrets scattered around. DKC Returns is more of just a mash of old rehashed ideas mixed with uninspired design, without really much in the way of having standout levels. Plus the maps sucked, moving around the map is just an icon on a very flat crappy looking souless board, it was the most primitive looking thing the series ever had.