How do we fix modern Sonic?

Here's how classic sonic worked prior to 3:
>stages are horizontal-focused, paths are upper/lower
>access to upper route is largely locked behind proper platforming
>focus is on consistently moving forward
>rarely slowed down by means you can't control
Now what did 3 do? It ruined all of that. Stages are far more vertical than before, there are many parts where sonic is moving up or down a level. Because of this, there are many parts where you are forced to slow down, and now rather than upper/lower, many alternate paths are just built into the main path. This means that a lot of the time, the alternate paths only serve to save a few seconds, as opposed to their former role of allowing you to skip large portions of the level. In addition to this, the concept of getting better to get through faster is lost, since so many of the alternate paths no longer require you to be good at the game to reach them. The next issue would be that the game incentivizes exploration. This forces the player to stop moving forward, in favor of looking around. For example, in previous games, the player would reach the bonus stages naturally, here they have to go out of their way to find the rings. Classic sonic's entire focus was lost. It used to be about mastering the physics and learning the route paths to maximize speed, but now that hardly mattered. It transformed into a much more "normal" platformer, more akin to something like mario. It's a shame so few people can see it like this

Attached: SOIVIC.jpg (674x1024, 66.08K)

lmao classicpedo infighting is hilarious
are there classicpedos who think sonic was only ever good at beginning of green hill zone in sonic 1 and had a rocky transition when he started moving?

Stages are more vertical because there are more optional paths for you to take, it allows the physics to be played with better, and exploration provides more benefits. The best stages of Sonic 1 and 2 have good amounts of verticality.