I watched the Animated Shakespeare version, which distilled the plot into a tidy 25 minutes or so. Arguably, that's enough. It's also enough to indicate that Shakespeare was taking several themes and plotlines that show up in his later plays and distilling them into something that at least resembles a plot.
However, unlike in his earlier plays, it is difficult to warm to the lovers. Leontes is a jerk. Hermione may or may not have died. Perdita is one of those unlikely heroines who moves easily from her peasant upbringing to a court (whilst suffering none of the problems of a near-starvation diet). And Florizel irritates his father by getting engaged without asking permission.
It's hard not to see a major change in Shakespeare. Granted, there's no way to know how and with whom the plays were written, so it's unfair to put too much emphasis on such changes.
Nevertheless, as I reach the end of the Shakespeare Couples list, one could argue that Shakespeare gave up the bantering, clever, likable partner couples of earlier plays for plays where the couples are mere props for plays about other stuff. The enamored couple gives way to kings who have kind of lost it.
He was free(ish) of course to write whatever he wanted. But I find the change rather sad.