Persona 4 Golden - Ahead of it's Time?

Watching a video review of Scarlet Nexus right now, and how it mentions the social aspect and its importance in the game, along with other games such as the more recent Switch Fire Emblem, and it got me wondering if perhaps Persona 4, originally a PS2 title all the way back in 2008, really spearheaded this gameplay mechanic that has crept up in a lot of titles, particularly Japanese action and RPG games. I mean, at the time, many people were still using flip phones, and social apps on phones, if they existed at all, were in their infancy. And yet, Persona 4 seems to be one of the first games to really emphasis interacting with other characters in the forefront of its gameplay.

Interested in people's throughts on this, as well as their overrall opinion of the game.