Somehow, someway, EG has got the spirit of MLP nailed down far better than FiM does nowadays.
Earlier seasons kept things really simple:
>Mane 6 + Spike
>CMCs stuff sometimes

And that's what we liked. We enjoy seeing the Mane 6 interact, the show is called FRIENDSHIP is magic
Obviously, their chemistry is the main draw. But now later seasons have so much f*cking cast bloat, that chemistry gets diluted (not to mention several writing issues, change of tone, etc.). The gimmicks they keep throwing in to try and make things feel fresh certainly doesn't help, like the Friendship school.

EG though, keeps things simple, probably due to limitation.
>Humane 7
>Side characters sometimes
That's it. We are getting pure unadulterated friendship out of EG. Sure they have a gimmick in the form of their powers but all that really does is give them something to do together. That's why the AJ + Rarity special was really good. It was a full length story exploring their relationship with a bad guy thrown in to spice things up.

FiM just doesn't do that sort of thing anymore which is really sad.
Hell, FiM never featured any of the mane 5 in 2-parters, period…

Mane 6 also seem a lot bitchier to each other this season. And dumber. You've got Applejack telling Twilight to be honest with Celestia three times and Twilight's like "nuh-uh". She's the element of honesty, Twilight, she knows her shit.
Or how even Pinkie remarks that it's a bad idea for RD and AJ to do a field trip with the new students when they are so obviously clashing. But Twilight again is like "nuh uh".
And for some reason what really sticks out to me is how often characters roll their eyes. You seem to have it one time minimum per episode, and nothing says "I'm so sick of your shit" like a good eye roll. But then they let everything play out according to script anyway so they can have a forced friendship lesson at the end. It just doesn't feel organic or endearing any more.

Equestria Girls, however… still has that spark and does it way better imo.