I can sort of agree with this. The later games have introduced more layers to the strategy with additional elements to tweek in order to win. I do however feel like those elements have taken more of a backseat role, it is not in focus. It maybe never was in focus but the modern games to me does not feel like strategy games with relationship elements it feels like relationship games with strategic elements.

When it comes to the difficulty I got to say that I might be a bit wrong because I never played long enough in the latest games to experience the more difficult parts. Most people like options but for me being able to turn off permadeath at all killed the DNA of what I liked about fire emblem. Designed with an option in mind.

I recommend playing them on higher difficult settings, they are so hard that I actually wished they were less hard because it has a clear lack of balance between "Hard" and "Maniac/Lunatic/Maddening". Some games are way too easy on hard (Awakening, Three Houses) but become extremely hard in their Lunatic and Maddening versions, the difficulty spark is stark and they are clearly not balanced with Maddening in mind. They were designed with Hard Mode in mind

I think Engage is the only game with a balanced Maddening I think, there is a difficult spike of course and the game is really brutal on Maddening (more so than 3 Houses even), but I feel Hard make an okay job preparing you for it. Next games should follow Engage in that regard 

The games design Philosophy around Permadeath was always variable. But even new games absolutely design the maps around permadeath, that's why it's an optional feature implemented in Fates for people who only wanted to play for the story, it's simply the norm for JRPGs to have an "story mode" now

The first games and to some extent Thracia expect you to sacrifice your party. This was acceptable because enemy quality was low, growths were smaller (and in Thracia caps were low too) and many characters were interchangeable, they could easily replace others. Engage follows this, as your early game units are so weak you can let them get killed without major consequences. And the game never stops throwing you workable prepromoted units to save your ass even in the late game (Rosado, Goldmarry, Saphir, Lindon, Mauvie, Veyle, etc) and reclassing system allows you to turn units in useful replacements 

I never played Gaiden, but assuming Echoes was a faithful remake the Philosophy was a bit different. With fatigue system and parties that were split between Alm and Celica the game expect you to save as many units as you can, hence the turn wheel was implemented in Echoes to avoid players having to reset so many times. It was a good addition for a game that need it. Three Houses is equal to Gaiden/Echoes, small cast (per house), villager-class starting party that needs train and also and larger class system progression. This all means you need to save your units to not soft lock yourself 

Awakening and Fates follow Jugdral Philosophy of pairing characters to have better second generation characters. The game expect you to let the parents die as long you have children replacement and encourage you to keep the parents alive at least enough to make them have offspring 

So as you can see even modern games clearly ascribe to very early games Philosophy. I think the perception of them being a bit different is because in west almost everybody started with FE7 games, and games that followed FE7 (Sacred Stones, Path of Radiance) are so easy with enemy quality so low that players got a bad impression FE was about sacrificing your units to progress the maps, as you always will have great units and enemies will always be so weak that you don't care to invest specific units to carry your playtrough. 

It's no surprise Radiant Dawn was so badly received, with people addressing bad balancing (as many units having shit availability) and overall unfair difficulty in some stages. It's because Radiant Dawn wants you to SAVE your units, without saying you so, so people who played this like they played FE7, 8 and 9 will scratch their heads and don't understand what they did wrong 

Didn't recruit Haar? Let Marcis, Leane, or Lucia died? Sacrificed your cavalry in Geoffreys Charge (part 2 fourth map) then Good lucky to play Elincia's Gambit (part 2 final map)... 

I wish Fire Emblem would find a way to make permadeath matter more to the story, where if a character dies in battle other characters will mention it later on, or certain story beats change because of which characters are alive or not. It's not something that's easy to do even in peak Bioware games, but it would go a long way towards unlocking Fore Emblem's true potential and really meld the gameplay and story together well.

This. Exactly this and also just jump straight to the matured up cast or do the jump earlier, I dunno if this is specific to Three houses or not cuase it's the only one I actually finished but like Persona I think the audience for these games has matured and the games should mature along with them. I see Metahpor Refantazio is taking the first bold step away from the teen drama which at this point is what I would imagine a drill to the temple feels like. Not to derail the thread, just to reinforce the point that if they're doing it Nintendo should, hopefully, follow suit. Also, I'd like Fire Emblem to focus more on the world as well as the characters, like possibly have the simulation inside an open world section or semi open world areas across an over map. I know that's a lot to ask and three houses was doing a lot as is but it'd be cool to have the real time bit be just a vast open area where you can actually miss bits before you progress the story. It'd make for great replayability and make it feel more like your making choices that impact things without having to code anything really complex instead of just checking off a list of things that need doing. Anyway, just my thoughts. 

Donkey kong in a 3d platformer again

Speaking of this, do you like Ocarina or maybe Wind waker? Or is it the open that does not bother you but the formula?