you're comparing anime as a whole with specifically prestige tv, which doesn't seem fair. when you expand the western tv beyond 'prestige' stuff you'll find series that have young savants, or heavy rivalries, or lots of game references.some of the biggest shows of the past few years have been things like the queen's gambit or stranger things. and you can find plenty of anime that flies in the face of all of these trends

i think these things you've identified are broadly accurate trends, but to act like it's universal bugs me. especially when you try and talk about the demographics that watch both, look at how massively popular around the world something like dragon ball is with people rooting for dumb guys