Nice analysis as always.
I wouldn't use the new textures as evidence that a lot of work has gone into this port, or rather they are another improvement which causes issues with the game's look.
Looking at the new textures some of them really stick out like a sore thumb compared to the originals. It's obvious that they've just been pixel doubled and then had some sort of smoothing/upscaling algorithm applied to them:
For example, the new textures completely squish the natural definition of the typeface on this billboard:
Original:
Remaster: