>>531078824
I feel like you're oversimplifying it too much, people prefer "darker and tragic" media because it's more interesting conceptually to explore themes in a different context than what they're originally presented as, especially if the original context was often very simplistic or devoid of deeper meaning. Whether or not such expansion works highly depends on the writing skill of the person/people working on it but otherwise people generally react positively to these deconstructions and extrapolations on certain subjects, like what drives people to become magical girls in the first place or how being a magical girl might be a wholly negative thing in the greater scheme of things.
Unfortunately because such subversions have become commonplace due to their popularity and the overall surrounding interest in introspective and subversive media, people have grown tired to the whole concept and now want to subvert the concept of subversion by playing everything 100% straight with no strings attached; any nuance removed and any deeper meanings stifled because "it's lame and cringe" and "everyone does it". People end up desiring the idea of subverting what everyone else does that they fail to realize they might end up regressing back into simplistic media that offers no merit outside of clapping when the cute heroine makes a speech about the power of friendship before blasting the depressed bad guy with a laser beam and killing them to death (but not really) or redeeming them by making them as happy as they are.