Note this is just the competitive MK games. And yes, MKT and UMK3 are by far the best MK games, it’s not even close.
To each their own, and I respect your opinion, but for me for different reasons, they're two of the worst, especially MKT which was just so lazy.
With MK3 (and by default UMK3) I hated the cheap fatalities that just cut sprites apart rather than animating proper deaths (MK1 had decapitated characters falling to their knees and collapsing, MK3 had Monty Python animations being chopped apart like they're being edited with the cutting tool in MS Paint), the explosions of 5 skulls and 30 legs, the awful animalities, Sub Zero looking an utter twat, the grungey city locations thoroughly devoid of Asian mysticalness, the weak new characters and the rehash of Shao Kahn as the boss.
With MKT I hated how cheaply old MK1 levels were incorporated without any of the background animations (the monks could clap on my SNES but are static on a PS1? No eyes in Goro's Lair? No lightning in The Portal?), how some levels didn't even have floor textures if you went to the far side of them (and there was no top to the Courtyard roof), how the once-amazing Pit 2 didn't work anymore (therefore not even a pit?), how it didn't feature Palace Gates, The Warrior Shrine and Shang's Throne Room (in fact if memory serves, I don't think MK1 music even featured on the levels it did include), how old fatalities like the spine rip were censored purely because they couldn't be bothered to re-animate them, how more characters meant more bad fatalities (old school Kung Lao even losing the best one from MK2), how the playable bosses are badly animated and thoroughly unplayable slabs of crap, the whole thing just felt like a lazy bolting of old graphical assets onto MK3.
For me, the lore and cinematic value of MK's story and presentation are a huge aspect of why I fell in love with the series with MK1 & 2 in the first place. MK3 felt like corners were being cut, and MK Trilogy felt like they didn't even care anymore. MK Mythologies, as clunky and haphazard as it played, at least felt like effort was put into it with all the FMV and back-story development. I vastly prefer both MK3 and UMK3 to Trilogy, since at least the former two felt somewhat complete, but still felt they really left a lot to be desired in areas that MK1 and MK2 made such effort in animating and designing. MKT just felt like a Frankenstein creation rather than a loving compilation of the first three games.
But hey, that's just me
and you don’t like umk3? Hmm interesting. But to each his own. I was right though about your era hehe you’re 30 which makes you a mill. You’re not American are you? If I may are you from Europe?