didn't really know how to rank the "modern" 4 persona games so i ranked them by doing a tier list of every social link in the series into five categories.
good - this is a good social link. i thought the story was fine (perhaps even more than fine rarely!)
funny - i thought this social link was funny. it was humorous, and i may have in fact laughed
mid - this was an average social link. i found it boring or thought it reached an unsatisfying or rushed conclusion.
bad - i dislike this social link. if i were to replay any of these games, these would be on the lowest priority.
i hate this guy - i actively despise the existence of the person in this social link. it goes beyond bad in that i would prioritize this social link just to pick the option that upsets said character the most.
there are also 2 other categories for social links that don't fit in any of the other categories for various reasons, those being
N/A and automatic - for social links that progress based on the games story, rather than player input, or are not applicable in that they don't follow traditional social link structure such as fox from persona 4
didn't play - self explanatory. i didn't play these. blame persona 4 for this categories existence.

after this, i averaged out each tier, and used the data to determine scientifically which persona game is the best one, based upon how they compared! this was not a waste of time. it's very important i accurately rank them. you never know when you might need to present your opinion on the persona series, so it's best to be prepared with hard data. video games rankings are important to society at large i think.

now time for the breakdown of how each one turned out.

persona 3 fes has an average amount of good social links, while also having the lead in the funny tier, accounting for 2 of the three entries in the category. nice work team! the mid count is squarely average, while the bad count is only at 2! not much to say, a strong start!!!

notably, persona 3 portable (femc route) has a significant lead in the amount of good social links, 4 over the average! it also has a slightly below average number of mid social links, while also only having one bad social link, that being ken's which is only in bad because they allow you to romance him! self sabotage, they could've had it, let's cool it with the pedophilia for the remake guys i believe in you! (they failed. the pedophile count is identical between fes and reload) although this doesn't affect it's ranking, it's also worth noting that while a few social links suffer in femc's route, many more thrive in it! aigis, mitsuru, and fuuka especially are all much better in femc's route as compared to the normal one! i can only have one entry and fes has to take priority, but i would even bump fuuka's social link from mid to good if we were only talking portable! it's also the only game with no one in "i hate this guy!" congratulations!!!!

persona 4 has the most evenly split with a tie for good, mid, and bad, falling below average for both good, and mid social links, but significantly above average for bad ones. notably it has 2 entries in the i hate this guy category, leaving it with last place. a special exception was made for teddie's social link despite the fact it is automatic. sometimes hatred can cross set tier boundaries. it also worth noting here that 2 of persona 4's social links remain unranked due to the fact you have to pick between 2 social links twice! perhaps these were the edge persona 4 needed to push it's good/mid count into the average, but on the other hand perhaps the fact you have to choose social links is in itself a negative! if theres one thing i learned from persona 4 it's definitely that friendship has no bounds because they never shut the fuck up about it, and yet i can't join both soccer and basketball!?!?! hypocrisy much??????????

persona 5 is notable in that it has no bad social links but the lowest count of good social links falling 2 below average. it is an outlier in that it has the highest count of mid social links by a significant margin, with five over the average of 8! perfectly fitting for the middle ranking of the 3 if i do say so myself. it also has one entry both the "i hate this guy" tier, and the funny tier! however it is different from others in said categories in that the funny parts of lavenza are all optional. the actual social link is quite mid! consider your self lucky you got put in funny lavenza social link!!! when it comes to the i hate this guy tier, it's a different kind of hatred. it's pure annoyance. i hate hearing futaba talk in the social link. shut the fuck up about video games nerd! no one cares about that. pick up a football.

for those interested in the data:

averages
good: 7
funny: 1
mid: 8 (rounded down from 8.25)
bad: 2 (rounded down from 2.25)
i hate this guy: 1

persona 3 fes
good: 6
funny: 2
mid: 8
bad: 2
i hate this guy: 1

persona 3 portable
good: 11
funny: 1
mid: 6
bad: 1
i hate this guy: 0

persona 4
good: 6
funny: 0 (talk about a buzzkill game!!!)
mid: 6
bad: 6
i hate this guy: 2

persona 5
good: 5
funny: 1
mid: 13
bad: 0
i hate this guy: 1

the image of the tier list got deleted so now you're just gonna have to guess who was in what! haha!!!
also if ranking by dungeon gameplay rather than social links, 5/3 reload > 3 fes > 3 portable >>>>> 4