The simulator stuff got old really fast for sure.. My first Fire Emblem game and I enjoyed it aside from that.
You should definitely check out some of the earlier entries like Path of Radiance, it's the same fun tactical gameplay but without the high school stuff.
Even Awakening, which was the beginning of the increased focus on relationships, was much better and didn't spend half of the game on that stuff.
And Three Houses is more Dating Sim then RPG. Which is sadly Fire Emblem's new direction. The FE support system used to deal with personal friendships or status within the different nations but once they started putting an Avatar into the mix it just becomes another Harem RPG.
Yeah, sadly with how popular Three Houses was that's probably going to be the new direction for FE for the foreseeable future.
I wish they'd just split the franchise like SMT and Persona. Have a more core line of games for fans of the old FE and then have a separate franchise where they can go crazy with the weeb crap.