Playing SA2 again and I think Treasure hunting stages are greatly overhated.
The goal is to get emerald pieces as fast as possible, but they spawn in random sets, so you have to use hint monitors, but they take away score, score loss that you can make up for by destroying enemies, or just getting the piece fast enough the score tax won't matter. These stages genuinely reward quick play, and my enjoyment for them has only increased from each playthough.
Every time I see anyone else play SA2 TH stages they just climb up high and glide in big circles for thirteen minutes in pumpkin hill, they actively avoid hint monitors because of the score decrease they give even when they're already guaranteed an E rank they'd rather pointlessly spend more time in the stage, a vast majority of the time the people who complain about TH they're actively not engaging with the game.
I'd say SA2 radar is better than SA1, but story mode should have given you the SA1 Radar and SA2 Radar for the hard mode version, just to better ease players in. I played SA2 with both Radars and I find SA1 makes to easy, it feels like having training wheels on, the hints are straight up not needed with SA1 Radar. Plus collecting a piece out of order feel very rewarding.