It's being a couple of weeks since I've finished this game and it does not get out of my head.
I've always enjoyed Castlevania and games which can be referenced as Metroidvania, but for some reason I've never got interested in playing Metroid, maybe because I was a Sega/Sony kid
But some weeks ago I was looking to play something "new" and was not in the mood for the vampire franchise, so I tried my luck and went to play Super Metroid with basically no expectations and suffice to say it blew my mind.
I was really surprised that it had almost everything a Metroidvania has and one generation before SOTN, I didn't expected this from a 16 bit game and I say this having owned Video Games since Atari 2600
I don't have much to add but if you are into retrogames and for some dumb reason, like mine, you still haven't tried Super Metroid, than please give it a chance.
I agree. I played 200+ hours of dread when it came out. Loved it.
After moving on to other games and replaying Super and AM2R, and beating Axiom Verge a couple times, I took Dread for another spin and... Downgrade is a good term for it like you said. I'm not excited at all for the next one anymore.