Oh the graphics don’t bother me at all, the Legndary edition holds up fine, I think. But ME1 has the best story in the trilogy, it’s why I still play it. I still remember the first time I played it. Being made a Spectre, speaking to Sovereign, the attack on the Citadel. How scary and unknowable the Reapers were. Hanging up on the Council. ;) The main storyline is better than 2 and 3 combined, imo. However, you are right that ME1 has some issues. While the Legendary Edition fixed a lot of the issues (and it does play smoothly, I do think), there are some things in ME1 that have become so tedious I don’t even do them anymore. Mainly talking about the exploration of unchartered worlds and the terrible handling of the Mako, or how every outpost looks the same, every mine looks the same, with the exact same layout. Makes it feel way more dated than it feels if you only go through the story. Not to mention the headache that is inventory management and swapping weapons and mods and grenades, turning everything into omni-gel because the stupid mini-game is even more annoying than inventory management!
For this reason I made a few save games that I 100%ed (one paragon, one renegade, different romances, etc). And I backed those up. Now, whenever I play ME1 I only do the main storyline and some side quests, and ignore the rest, lol. Then in ME2 I import one of the files I saved. Cut out all the tedium. ;)