i still prefer NL. despite its integration with NH, HHP is still completely separate in my eyes. i'm sure there are rough numbers that "prove" which game has more items one way or another, but i think content wise it depends on the player and what they prefer in a game. for me, NL had more content. i'm not a designer. i wouldn't go so far as to say i hate that aspect of the games, but i definitely don't like it. NH doubled down on it way too hard for my taste, with several of the new features revolving around it, making them relatively useless to me, and neglected the charm that a lot of the older games had in my opinion. i prefer (and miss) a lot of NL's clothes and furniture. i spent a lot of hours on the mini-game island(s). more than i do on the NM/kapp'n ones or farming miles. i miss sitting on rocks. the windmill. main street. the NPCs who didn't technically make it. the cafe mini-game. the varied and more frequent requests. the police station. i find the music better, too, although i digress.
NL had its faults, i can admit that, but the hard majority of them were QOL issues, and i try to ignore those because each game has generally improved on the last one's QOL stuff, and NH did the same -- it even has QOL issues of its own.
now. this is not to say NH is a bad game. it's not. for me, it's just a good game though. it's not my favorite AC entry, but it is second. i've sunk enough hours into it, albeit mostly because i'm a depressed recluse with too much free time. it's too much of a decorating game and not enough of a life simulator for me. people like to cite that the outdoor decorating, terraforming and crafting automatically make it better. the first two mean nothing to me, and the latter is often a nuisance. (i didn't like it at the launch trailer, and i still don't particularly enjoy it now ajdkfkgkgl.) and all three revolve around my least favorite aspect of the series -- which is why i'm struggling with HHP and don't care for main-game features being locked behind it.
at the end of the day, i don't think there is a wrong answer. in my opinion, which entry has more content depends on what each individual player prefers to do in an AC game. me? i like the charm, the mini-games, the variety and the slight lack of control because it reflects real life where you can't micromanage what everything looks like. ergo, NL has more content to me. others? they might love decorating inside and outside, enjoy farming/cooking or shaping their island exactly how they see fit. ergo, NH probably has more content to them. both answers are right, and that's okay!
