Why is persona 4 considered the best in the series by so many?

I played persona 4 on normal and hated it, because it was braindead easy. What made it worse is that the beginning is so long it made it so when I decided I had to play the game on hard I didn't want to, because I dreaded going through that again. Then I eventually played on hard and even though it was fun for awhile, I didn't care for it because after a little grinding and developing sensible persona builds, it's still easy.

On top of that, the setting for p4 is lame as fuck. I get that even characters in the game acknowledge that you're out in the countryside and it sucks out there, but that doesn't help how uninteresting all the town maps are.

I'm guessing the saving grace of p4 is the story, but honestly it doesn't do much for me.

At this point, I think the only way I'll appreciate the game is when it's remade with gameplay and graphical tune ups. That being said, please tell me how/why so many claim this is the best persona, even better than p5 (lol).