Exactly. Instead we now have:

Get in the fucking Humvee Shinji.

Also

Seems some people saw all of that and only remembered the cool mechas.

I mean, I kind of get it. That whole genre is/was wall-to-wall spectacle. I suppose it's possible to dazzle your audience a little too much and lose the plot in all the mayhem.

But it's not limited to Mecha Anime. Take The Expanse, for instance. The plight and rebellion of The Belters is pretty much a pastiche a marginalized and developing societies that slave away for the benefit of other wealthy nations, today. And that arc is central to the plot of every season of the show, complete with a bloody rebellion and grave ramifications for those on top. But if you ask, I bet folks mostly recall a show about "protomolecule stuff" and "really cool space battles."