They came out when I was in high school. Especially 2, which felt like looking into a super powered mirror, I identified with Peter probably way more than was healthy ;)
Those movies were huge for me. That, the rerelease of Star Wars, and the Jackson LotR films were ground breaking for the nerd I was, finally signaling the breakthrough of what I liked into being socially acceptable/ normal. So I have a lot of love for the Raimi films for that.
But I think that this film does something better, and after a few days I figured out why. It does the teenager with super powers thing better, and really sells what a 15 year old boy would actually feel like. Tobey McGuire was always too mopey and sad about his powers (though, to be fair, I didn’t notice at the time since I was a socially isolated mopey teen at the time too). But Homecoming does something different, Peter gets joy from his powers, he is legitimately excited about it. It causes him trouble, and it does isolate him some, but he sees his ability as a force for good and a key to a bigger life.
And it’s because of the MCU connection.
Most other films it allows some shortcuts, gives world building depth without needing to exposition dump. Kinda like how this opens on a salvage operation post New York. But, more importantly, it creates a world where super heroes are a thing, where people acknowledge their existence. It may seem like a small thing, but it fundamentally changes how Peter acts and interacts in some meaningful ways. Just nods to comic book conventions ‘I want to be your chair guy!’, the inspirational/ scary aspect of supers, the integration of the Sokovia Accords into mundane life vis a vis classwork, it all creates a world where we can bypass the awkward ‘pretend supers aren’t a thing’ that other films have done. It gives us a glimpse into what the second generation supers would be like, having grown up in a world where these things exist, and how they would anticipate such things.
Like I said, it is a small thing that has big ramifications for the character of Peter Parker, and his friends. As such I think being part of the MCU added more to this film than any of the previous films.