I think that the difference is most of those are corporate sponsored and very in-your-face in some way. I'm thinking of He-Man and the like, intended to sell action figures, not necessarily entertain. However, Davis was an individual and had (I'm sure) no real money to back up his plans. (To make merchandise, etc.) He started out with an idea of creating something easily licensable under the guise of entertainment, and intentionally made it bland in order to avoid a backlash. That's disconcerting, but it sounds to me like one person's psychosis instead of a new trend.