360 is my fave console from the 7th gen but not one game on that system is even half as good as Crono Trigger, FF6, SMW, or SM. Sorry. Before anyone says "gears" GOW has aged badly within its own genre.

Here is some evidence that "most people" prefer the NES, particularly in North America.  The NES/Famicom only had a major presence in Japan and North America.  I wouldn't expect it to be preferred in other parts of the world.  But here is evidence of the NES' popularity in North America.

1) NES literally sold more than SNES.  I know you don't want to count this, but that is kind of like saying, "You have no evidence that I shot this guy" while you are holding a smoking gun.  Sales numbers are very weighty evidence.

The NES sold more than the SNES, but the biggest difference in sales was in North America.  That is where we should find the most people who prefer the NES, especially among those who are old enough to remember the NES when it was a current console.

2) Retro Gamers on Youtube.  I did some searches looking for the top 30 retro gaming channels (based on subscriptions) that are in North America.  Almost all of these channels cover retro gaming in general.  However some of the channels clearly favor one system based on content, and in some cases the Youtuber has just come out and said what their favorite system is.  Here are the results:

Here is the data for just NES and SNES channels

Just based on retro content on Youtube, the NES is far more popular than the SNES, at least among North American gamers.  You might also argue that the SNES had tougher competition in North America.  However if you add the SNES and Genesis together, then that brings the # of channels up to 5 and the NES is still far ahead on total subscriptions.  The NES' popularity vs the SNES is not simply because some prefer the Genesis.  People authentically love the 8-bit era completely on its own.

3) Merchandise

Here is a popular site that sells retro gaming T-shirts.
https://pixelretro.com/pages/pixelretro-quality

Under their NES category they have 90 different shirts available.  Under their SNES category they have 40 shirts available.

Here is another site that sells retro gaming themed art.
https://artovision3d.com/

The art can be bought as shadowboxes that hang on the wall or it can be desktop art.  I sorted these by "best selling" and then counted how many were NES themed and how many were SNES themed.

In both cases art from NES games appears more often than art from SNES games in the "best selling" category.  What people actually buy more often is the NES themed art.

Ultimately, what I wanted to show is how extremely popular the NES is in North America.  People on the internet like to crap all over the NES.  Meanwhile, I know plenty of people in real life who love it.  Part of the disconnect is that most parts of the world did not experience the NES in its prime.  Those who didn't dismiss the NES quickly, while those who did have a deep appreciation for it.  When I'm saying people love the NES, I'm not just making this up.  There is a reason why the NES sold more than the SNES.  It was and still is a very popular system for North American gamers.

Again, sales aren't an apples to apples comparison because they sold under very different circumstances.

The preferences of youtubers and merchandise don't prove anything either, that's just the rose-tinted nostalgia of a specific demographic. If you grew up gaming the the 80s, NES was virtually the only game in town, there was little alternative due to the lack of competition in the console space. 

I think our fundamental disconnect is that you're talking about which was more popular in its time, whereas I'm talking now, today, in the 21st century, in retrospect. Take a bunch of gamers who grew up with neither and let them play both today; I doubt most would choose the NES.

That is probabaly true, especially outside of North America and Japan.  SNES games are more like modern games.  SNES games are easier and longer than NES games (as a whole) which makes them more like the games made today.  SNES games are 2D, so they feel a step or two away from modern games, but NES games are like an extra step and that can feel too far removed from modern games.  Also the NES doesn't use any developer tricks (things that subtly make a game easier), and this is great on an old TV, but it can make the NES feel off on an HDTV which generally has lag in it.  NES is more reflex based than any system that came later.

However, a lot of people (probably most people) who played both the NES and SNES when they were new systems prefer the NES.  There is a difference between looking forward (in real time) and looking backward having not lived through it.  There are several ways that NES games are better: 1) action is most intense on NES (less lag and "developer tricks"), 2) more first party games (3 Marios, 2 Zeldas, etc...), 3) light gun games, and 4) most importantly there is a lot more variety and originality on the NES.  One thing that makes a game good (and a console good) is originality.  On the NES, Mario, Zelda, Metroid and Tetris were totally original games (also Mega Man, Castlevania, Final Fantasy, etc...).  Everything was original.  Modern gaming is so far removed from this that it's hard to describe.  Breath of the Wild would have been another good game on the NES, but today it is game of the decade.  The NES was pure originality and today's gaming has almost none.

These are the reasons why the people who experienced the NES in it's prime consider it one of the best (or simply the very best) systems of all time.

SNES are also more like modern games because they learned from the lessons of the 3rd gen and improved upon them; for example there's less cheap and frustrating design choices designed to waste a player's lives/time to extend the game, plus deeper gameplay due to having eight buttons instead of four. 

Few people who don't have childhood nostalgia for the NES would argue it has aged particularly gracefully, whereas SNES's classics are generally considered to have aged extremely well.

This is a very narrow minded view of gaming.  One of the most basic game design principles is "easy to learn, difficult to master".  NES games tend to fit this principle better than SNES games.  A controller with 4 buttons is easier to learn than one with eight.  At the same time "frustrating design choices that waste a player's lives/time" often means the game is actually just difficult to master.  This is assuming we are talking about a tough but fair game like Castlevania.  The best NES games have a better design than the best SNES games.

NES games tend to be better for speed running for this very reason.  If a person has mastered a game, then it's actually pretty short to complete.  Of course it takes hundreds of hours to get that good.  The point of a lot of NES games is to "git gud" instead of just complete the game.  The type of person who likes Dark Souls would probably also like NES games, especially on an original system with a CRT TV.

That is probabaly true, especially outside of North America and Japan.  SNES games are more like modern games.  SNES games are easier and longer than NES games (as a whole) which makes them more like the games made today.  SNES games are 2D, so they feel a step or two away from modern games, but NES games are like an extra step and that can feel too far removed from modern games.  Also the NES doesn't use any developer tricks (things that subtly make a game easier), and this is great on an old TV, but it can make the NES feel off on an HDTV which generally has lag in it.  NES is more reflex based than any system that came later.

However, a lot of people (probably most people) who played both the NES and SNES when they were new systems prefer the NES.  There is a difference between looking forward (in real time) and looking backward having not lived through it.  There are several ways that NES games are better: 1) action is most intense on NES (less lag and "developer tricks"), 2) more first party games (3 Marios, 2 Zeldas, etc...), 3) light gun games, and 4) most importantly there is a lot more variety and originality on the NES.  One thing that makes a game good (and a console good) is originality.  On the NES, Mario, Zelda, Metroid and Tetris were totally original games (also Mega Man, Castlevania, Final Fantasy, etc...).  Everything was original.  Modern gaming is so far removed from this that it's hard to describe.  Breath of the Wild would have been another good game on the NES, but today it is game of the decade.  The NES was pure originality and today's gaming has almost none.

These are the reasons why the people who experienced the NES in it's prime consider it one of the best (or simply the very best) systems of all time.