you are mistaken. The turtles used to be gritty before in the comics.
But they changed into kids cartoons. they evolved, It's not the same. Star Wars had a cartoon made but it never evolved into kids stuff. That transition never happened. (same thing with the ghost busters, or bettlejuice, they had a cartoon show made but they never evolved into kids' stuff only)
you keep talking about being a true turtles fan and about the posers being stupid. But in this case none of that matters because the turtles became something like Pokemon or Digimon.
And there are a lot of adults that take Pokemon seriously and play the Pokemon card games and they are hardcore about it. But Pokemon is still for kids, just like the turtles are now.
that's also the difference with Transformers. Transformers was a cartoon made for kids but it was a serious cartoon, it wasn't a comedy action show like the Turtles. Transformers was just as serious as a regular action tv show.
the difference here is that the Turtles were not only action but comedy as well, and that the cartoons they made of the turtles became more child friendly.