For years I thought the same of 2, but now I think that was likely partially due to the frustration of playing a roughly translated NES ROM back in the day. The re-released version from a few years ago was actually pretty enjoyable with the exception of the final dungeon being filled with instant death enemies.

I have to wonder how many QoL changes the re-release has. When I rank the FFs, I only consider the original versions.

Oh it has plenty as did the other early versions of the games in the "pixel" remasters. As much as I loved the original FF when it was new, it is hard to play through it now without the QoL changes from the later releases. I just wish they hadn't scaled the difficulty down so much.