Is Hoi An overrated?
Hoi An can still land, but only if you do not ask it to be quiet lantern magic all day. Go with timing discipline, stay briefly or use it as a softer base, and the charm survives the tourist machine.
Answer
Hoi An is beautiful in the way famous places often are: the ingredients are real, and the machinery around them is also real. The old town, food, tailoring and riverside evenings can be lovely; the crowds, sales pressure and photo-routine feeling can flatten it fast. The answer is not to skip automatically, but to weight it correctly. Two or three nights can work if you want a slower central base. One well-timed visit may be enough if crowds grate on you. Go early, go late, leave the busiest hours for rest or a beach break, and avoid expecting Hoi An to perform authenticity on command.