Very thorough review and I too agree with the reviewer's conclusion.
JA2 came out in 1999 which I really enjoyed; also loved JA1. It seems that JA3 took JA2 and upped the number of enemies per sector (or at least the difficulty) and frequency of attacks on sectors my mercs occupied. JA3 is like JA1 in obtaining weapons, JA2 allowed online purchase of all items found in the game, a feature currently absent in JA3.
JA3 does feel like a successor to JA2 by adding more merc comments and keeping many of the mechanics that made JA1 and JA2 so much fun to play.