3's music is so much better than this. I think with time, now that this soundtrack is part of the series, more people will warm to 3's soundtrack. It's fucking bumping but some people can't accept the style. Personally, I think this soundtrack is weak sauce. They were huge shoes to fill to be fair but it falls so flat in my opinion.
I'm not sure what you mean regarding the 2003 re-boot. You mean SOR Remake? Because I don't rate that either. Though the compositions are the same, they sound like amateur arrangements.
I will concede that this game was quite fun though which I wasn't exepecting after seeing videos. I would have included running and rolling personally in the design of this game. Once you have mastered the controls in BK3, it's a tier above 2 but 2 seems to get the nod. Maybe because it's rememberd more fondly, I'm not sure. I don't like Cherry or Jax. Their designs are ass, Cherry more so. There's a bunch of characters that are in the game in some form that I would have loved to be able to use instead but I'm not going to say who they are just in case it is considered a spoiler. I'm expecting paid DLC bullshit for them though.
I am happy that SOR is getting some love these days. It's a series I've grown up with, I loved every single entry and still play them all regularly. It seems SEGA hasn't completely forgot about it thankfully.