Considering the aesthetic and theme of Zero-Two is all about being a better and new start, I think this is the one time where I am perfectly okay with the final form's superpower just boiling down to 'it fights better'. It's Rising Hopper but better in every way, which is all it really needs in my opinion.

I don’t disagree with any of that, I just found Shining Hopper to be a better upgrade overall, especially with the really cool "computing the flow of battle"-effects. Zero-Two essentially does the same but better, although no effects are used and they instead throw in suit doubles which is a bit wonky IMO.

So as far as powers go, Zero-Two didn’t impress me much. Probably the weakest upgrade Aruto had. But it is a really pretty to look at suit, I love how as a final form it is "just" a new base form.

That’s the only thing I miss which might have been lost due to the break, Zero-Two deserved more screen time to develop it presence within the show.

I think Zero-Two could have been done better if it was more explicitly about doing Shining better -- as well as everything Assault and Cluster did but better. Imagine him defeating Ark by teleport-rushing it, then sending the Shine System at it, using metal clusters to defend; and finally Jumping To The Sky Turning To A Rider Kick. I think in lieu of something completely new, that really would have been a good way to do it.

Hm... maybe a combination of abilities instead?

Like, maybe the red metal on his gauntlets could be Hiden metal which can liquefy and travel around his body. To protect against attacks, or to reinforce different attacks (travel to fists, elbows, knees, legs, feet) but mach faster, so basically whenever he hits something the red metal is at that body part which makes contact with the enemy.

The Shine System I would shrink down so there’s one Shine Cryster embedded in each fingertip. And maybe he could do something like Symetra for Overwatch with it, create light constructs?

Shining's effect I have no idea for except maybe crank it up to 11 so that here's not one best attack patter but hundreds. So imagine the CG effect from Shining Hopper were 5 different possibilities appeared on screen but instead it's multiple dozens and instead of one lighting up green, showcasing the best possible attack has been found, it's at least a handful and all are executed in succession.

Just my ideas, although personally I would've liked for Zero-Two to do something really new, not just be better than its predecessors at everything. It also needed more holographic scarf action.

I think I can hear Toei's CGI Budget crying at these cool abilities.

Giving Zero-Two any fancy abilities at all completely misses the point of Zero-Two in my opinion. The simplicity that makes the design so great should be reflected in a fighting style that eschews elaborate gimmicks. It doesn't need anything more than the absolute basics because it represents, in-universe, those basics being refined to their absolute pinnacle. Honestly, I even loved the suit double thing more than Shining Hopper's version for being such a simple yet clever practical effect. Zero-Two is essentially the exact opposite of Grand Zi-O to me. The less big they go with it, the better.

It's easy to imagine the "stunt doubles" of 02 being actual physical duplicates created by a combination of the tech from the previous Hopper forms (MetalCluster's metal constructs to form the body, ShiningAssault's Shine system to control it remotely, Shining's attack simulation to confuse the enemy about which is the real 02 and which is the duplicate), but that ability being complicated enough that he's limited to one duplicate at a time.

But if that was what the writers intended, it would be weird for them to not explicitly show off "this new form can create a duplicate of itself!"

The story reason for Zero Two makes sense. A fresh new start, but a better start, a stronger foundation, stronger learning, better outcomes.

Personally, the relatively simple design really appeals to me. Sometimes I feel that rider forms get more and more exaggerated as they get upgraded, until at a certain point they might as well be Iron Man suits.