Oh, sure, on the first look at 1.11 it felt dangerously close to losing a lot of the character to me - it was 2.22 that made it work, partially because of what I mentioned :)

1.11 felt completely unnecessary to me, personally. It didn't add anything to the original story, and took away too much. The only real achievement for me was the final battle, since the octohedron angel was otherwise a forgettable villain-of-the-week episode.

The sequels that stop tracking so close to the original is where it takes off. I still prefer the original but it didn't feel like a simple re-make at that point.

If you watched it instead of the episodes it could be seen as a mine death/rebirth, but agreed. 2.22 is the best!

1.11 was IMO important to prepare the ground for 2.22 - some subtle differences exist and by not following exact the original story it makes 2.22 stand out more. But by itself it's not that great - probably helps a lot that I watched 1.11 and 2.22 pretty much back to back.

2.22 was the peak of the rebuild. I’d have loved it way more if it ended right there. Best character development, most interesting angels (except clocky), Mari has potential and wasn’t another caricature, all downhill 3.33 was little more than a drawn out and more boring episode 24 with 2 interesting fights.