I would have to say that I still think RE2R ranks higher than RE4R. Despite the fact that I think RE2R was 85% complete and did need some seriously fine-tuning especially for the B scenarios and perhaps more crossover potential between the two sides, it still feels like an authentic 'Resident Evil' game and the characters and story were well portrayed, and the added mechanics, atmosphere and survival horror elements were sound. RE4R holds up very well gameplay-wise but the problem here is that I despise RE4's story and over the top set pieces and it reeks like some medieval childrens fairy tale with little regard to the more based science fiction mystery horror that started the franchise and RE4R was extremely faithful to these more lacklustre elements or RE4, almost to a fault. I mean you can decorate a cake with the best frosting, candy, and icing, but if the actual cake batter leaves something to be desired and don't really care for its center, it's impossible to thoroughly enjoy it, right?
I never cared for the merchant, and I don't particularly like dropping points into weapons to magically make them more powerful and prefer RE2'R system of a more practical approach on weapon attachments as a way to fine tune weapons, but both games utilize the gun powder system fairly well for ammo crafting which is cool and all, I just feel that they could have expanded on them a bit and be able to craft different types of ammo for each weapon. Thus far RE3 Nemesis OG trumps every RE game in the ammo crafting sector and think that system have stuck around on the franchise. RE4R incorporates stealth, which is awesome, but it feels more experimental and doesn't weave into the game as well as it should. Don't get me wrong, it's fascinating that Capcom has put forth the effort to this feature and I hope they perfect in the future, it's just at this point I cannot praise it to the heavens because it still feels experimental. RE2R doesn't need stealth because the game was well designed around the idea of not needing it and focused more on visual and atmospheric horror.
I'd say both games rank equal on sound and ambience, I really like the sounds of the gunshots especially in RE4R and the fact that there's one bullet in the chamber when you reload a full magazine demonstraes a push towards more weapon realism. Both games do very well on atmosphere and horror visuals but I'd have to say RE2R beats out RE4R simply because it feels more based due to all the other elements combined. I really liked the boss battles in RE2R and felt far more tense, RE4R's boss battles felt like the cheesey ones from 'Village' with the way the bosses move around in an almost orchestrated fashion and exchange silly dialogue with the player.
I could go on, and on and on, but I really don't want to as I think I have covered the basics so the TLDR version would be that RE2R is a fascinating recreation of RE2 and stands well on its own two feet despite a few lapses in design potential (especially regarding the B scenarios) whilst RE4R does a good job augmenting and improving the aspects on that game with better and even more experimental and perhaps new features for the franchise but it is still held back by its extreme faithfulness to the core RE4 experience, which to me feels quite sour in the year 2023.