>>23398621In my interpretation they're supposed to represent the new generation of youth and the hope that they will change humanity for the better. Their telepathic powers that allow them to overcome misunderstanding is supposed to symbolize the hope that the new generation can overcome the misunderstandings that are the root of war. The point was not that they are superhumans or an evolved humanity, they are a humanity that has matured, not fundamentally different from non-newtypes (amuro literally says so in 0079, that newtypes arent "special humans"). This is the symbolism of newtypes awakening in space, like children growing up after leaving the cradle that is earth, it is maturation, not evolution. All of this optimism for the next generation is however tempered with the clashing perceptions of what newtypes are, what they should be and what they can do, representing how the expectations and authority of the old generation can still subvert and exploit the new (see cyber-newtypes, thinking of newtypes only as aces or espers, using newtypes as a pretext for wiping out the "old humanity").
Unicorn and Gquux do away with all this nuance by reducing newtypes to literal superhumans that evolved in space. They are shown as transcending "oldtypes", as ruling over time and space and being "stronger" than them, there is a strong focus on newtypes being the new stage humanity that must be liberated from the rule the old humans, its not framed as a generational conflict but almost a racial one. Thats why Lalah ruling over universes as a demiurge and Machu talking about a real newtype being strong come off as completely wrong, it misses the point of what they originally meant.