Not nearly as good because the fact that he acts like an actual, prepubescent boy with fears and issues instead of like pretty much every other teenage protagonist in an Anime about teenagers fighting monsters/big bads - that fact is essential to the story and the show's themes.
"Get in the fucking Robot, Shinji" and the regular Waifu debates about which traumatised minor you'd like to fuck the most are the two reasons why I find the NGE fandom pretty much insufferable, because it portrays such an amazing lack of understanding of what the show is about, what story it's telling and which themes it portrays (and because the second point is just fucking gross either way).
I like to assume that most the waifu debates are being done by minors or people who remember watching the show as a minor. It kinda backs up a lot of the shows themes if minors are completely missing the point of the show.
But realistically it's probably mostly weirdo adults.