they're completely different games. it's like apples and oranges. ssb4 is not objectively better except maybe in that it has more content? (although besides more characters/stages its about the same amount of content to melee i think)
there's also this
like melee is fast
sm4sh is
well
not
as fast
can you tell me why people prefer melee anyways?
I missed all the arguments so I've never got an in-depth explanation.
Personally I prefer the S4, but I never played melee so it'd be unfair to rule it out.
i like sm4sh, don't get me wrong
but it's best put like this

i'm getting a lot of pictures from the smashbros subreddit and it's saving me time
but seriously
i tab out for 15 minutes
come back and they're STILL playing the same set
melee is faster, has a more developed meta and is also a completely different style of game
sm4sh doesn't have many combos to speak of (yet)
melee is technical, faster, and has a lot of combo game
like you don't see or have yet to see a 0-death combo happen in sm4sh that isn't like diddy and someone not knowing how to airdodge or tech