Better mechanics are never bad. But the points we where talking about weren't that at all. We were talking about automatic alignment of multiple Z motors. That doesn't apply to any stock Ender 3, because they all only have a single Z motor. No alignment needed, and actually no alignment possible.

Regarding the other points:

• Metal extruder is nice if you want to print hotter materials and it's a bit less maintainance, but the trade-off is that it's a fair bit worse for PLA, which incidentally is what most beginners print exclusively.
• The older stock hotends for Ender 3 wheren't great. The new one isn't exactly great either, but better. So not a bad thing.
• Better springs are better mechanics.
• ABL doesn't do much at all if your hardware is set up correctly and is mostly used by beginners to mask a badly calibrated bed, which in turn creates non-dimensionally accurate prints.

But of course the recommendation would be for the newest version of Ender 3, because there's no point in starting off with an outdated machine.

Again, the upgrades the other guy mentioned where not that.