Would I actually like to see a modern classic Animal Crossing?
Honestly, I've got pretty complicated feelings about it.
On one hand, Animal Crossing as a series turned 23 on the 14th of April, with the Japanese release of NL increasingly near the middle of it (looked it up, that date's on the third of June, which is in about 6 weeks time). If the next AC game's announced around then and it's more customisation-based it'll have been customisation-focussed longer than it's been about moving into a new town and just living in it... and that's honestly kind of depressing. Don't get me wrong, I like being able to put stuff out! I like being able to choose specific villagers! I like not having to endlessly reset for specific things (at the cost of me actually playing the damn thing). I just also think that the amount of control over the village this requires has ultimately been a bad thing in some ways. There isn't much in the way of friendship progression, because when you're essentially in charge of the damn place, they pretty much have to give you respect automatically. The world increasingly doesn't feel like it exists outside of you, it feels like it exists around your specific whims. It exists to be convenient for you. It exists to be a blank canvas to turn into whatever makes people on the internet go "ooh, look what this player's made", which is good for the interpersonal communication part of Animal Crossing, but bad for the idea of Animal Crossing As A World Of Its Own. It often ends up as something full of The Same Top-Tier Villagers As Everyone Else, and something that’s cute, sure… but it isn’t a forest village full of animals. I just want to wake up early on a summer morning and go do some aerobics with Copper. I just want to boot the game up on one random Saturday in September and you've got villagers competing in a sports fair (and on top of that, I want to actually compete in it!). I want to see villagers actually having picnics during Cherry Blossom season, or making igloos in the winter. I want campers to visit just for the fun of it during the summer, not because they're considering moving in! I want holiday events where the acquisition of event items hasn't been largely moved to the days beforehand, so the actual event can be completed in 15 minutes, then Never Again. I want something like sending money to Boondox, where it's clearly just a scam but hey, I can get some exclusive items out of it... or at the very least, something like turning on the lighthouse when Tortimer's on holiday. I want to trade items with NPCs to get a golden axe rather than "hey, you did thing x times, have a golden axe". And if I’m being honest, I would rather have this than “hey, you’re in charge of this place, cut every tree down and turn it into a theme park if you want, don't worry if you can't play every day because They're Not Going To Do Anything Without Your Permission", even if I'm also partially to blame for this shift in some small way.
On the other hand, is now specifically a good time to move back to the classic formula? Given NH has proven both successful and controversial in equal measure, feel as if right now specifically feels like an overcorrection to NH being so different it makes NL feel like a classic AC game in comparison, and in general it just feels like grovelling as opposed to the AC devs feeling emboldened by the success of NH, or them moving back to that formula because they actually want to do that, not to mention a big "screw you" to whoever started with NH that actually likes the damn thing (and although I’ve got mixed feelings about the thing, yeah, I like it a lot). It feels like it's playing it safe, especially if there's no big theme to glue it together like WW, NL and NH have. Even if it's trying to be a bigger, better version of WW (a game where the big overarching theme is "get to know the people in this crazy wild world we live in")... sure, it's been long enough since this was last done that it has the potential to feel fresh again, but it's been done. Is there a brand-new angle you can approach classic Animal Crossing from? Are there enough new angles that you can approach "move into a town" Animal Crossing from that it's feasible in the long term to continue doing this? If not, what's the point in making it aside from just "enough people got angry about NH that it's time for the series to go back to its roots"? The idea that Animal Crossing's somehow going to go even further into wild exotic locales and even more customisation's terrifying on its own merits, but the idea that Animal Crossing has to essentially tread water and make the same game forever, and can't do anything bold and interesting to shake things up's equally terrifying imo.
That's the Gamecube version of Animal Crossing with all the bells and whistles! Villagers get sick, 
if you're good friends with them they call out to you when you're walking around, 
you can hold flowers in your hand, 
you can take screenshots, 
the island is unlocked right away 
and I believe you get to choose what color statue you want of yourself when you pay off your mortgage. 
You can even enter Tom Nook's shop after hours! 
The closest I've come to that is owning the Japanese N64 Animal Crossing, which is kinda like the Gamecube one. 
Sooo... there's always that option for anyone out there unable to obtain the Gamecube version, I suppose... 
