I agree about Cap, but I also think part of that has to do with him belonging to an overall more cohesive universe and how the character fit into it, and interacted with the other characters in it. When TFA was released, Evans’s portrayal was lukewarm if I recall correctly, and the film was seen as average. Much of DCEU’s early installments all outdid the MCU’s at the box office. MCU was able to perfectly pull everything together though which became evident in the first Avengers film, whereas the DCEU, wasn’t, because they hastily tried to cobble a working universe together without really knowing what exactly it was they wanted to do.
I think we’re essentially saying the same thing, because I’m also asserting that the tone of the characters isn’t the issue. It’s WB having their collective heads up their *****.
Personally, if it were me and everything was already planned, my personally DCEU movie slate would have looked something like this:
Phase One:
MoS (Villain: Zod)
BvS (Villains: Luthor, Doomsday)
WW (Villain: Ares)
Aquaman (Villain: Orm)
Justice League (Villain: Orm/Ocean Master
Phase Two:
MoS 2 (Villain: Brainiac)
Flash
SS
Batman (Villain: Deathstroke?)
WW 2
Justice League 2 (JL Dark)
Aquaman 2
Something along those lines. I think it would have been a bit cooler to have Aquaman join the JL after he was already anointed King of Atlantis, and with the way Orm left in Aquaman, have him come back as Ocean Master in JL, which is also the film where Superman gets resurrected, then immediately comes back for MoS 2 in the first film in Phase Two given how he essentially came full circle as a character at the end of JL.