So firstly feudal could be 1000 years and half a continent if we stick to Europe. A lot of things changed, feudalism is a term falling out of favour for manorialism among historians btw, because it’s more myth than reality.

Materially? No. Illness and pain were common, labour was backbreaking, women were deeply oppressed. Child birth was extremely dangerous, punishments harsh, exploitation ubiquitous, recreation limited.

Socially it is harder to say. In many ways life was very communal, they did not have the same epidemics of alienation and isolation. Many people appear to have found happiness. While they did not really have “free time” as we do they spent more time working on things which directly improved the lives of themselves and those around them. In some places and times life was relatively cosmopolitan, others deeply monocultural.

There were large and lavish celebrations, big communal events bringing people together. However you also had to like maintain your personal crops/animals/clothing/house etc during this time. Frozen meals and movie nights these holidays were not.

Also you were probably in pain a lot of the time, I need to emphasise just how impossibly cool medicine and especially dental care are when you actually have good access to them.

We shouldn’t look to the past as a place to return to, but a place where we can find lessons. We can see some ways in which peasants might have been more fulfilled. Some are not so useful, like the sureness that comes from a religious monoculture, some perhaps we can ask “Why do we live such isolated lives? Why do we not have shared communal holidays? Why do we work so many hours for others and have so little time for our community?”