This touches on the matter of religion in systems, a topic that’s appeared here in the recent past. It also speaks on other matters that are burrs under my sadlle.
I’m with you on some things, but I’m never quite sure how easily we can get away from the “gold rush” window dressing in games where the whole setup is so close to it. Your average “megadungeon” with other adventuring groups in the vicinity being considered normal is just too close to that setup. Even reskinning it to a more “Camino de Dungeono” setup won’t be too off, if local artisans notice plenty of people needing ropes and the like, the local peddler will shop around and present that at his stall. Well, I guess having markets & stalls would be a better setup than the “grumpy grocer” Old West style…
And, well, OSR trainers… I never quite saw the diegetic or literary equivalent of this, so while I can understand the game’s need for siphoning away some of the money or the “realism” of needing more in-world time to go from zero to hero, I never got a good grip on who those people were. In scenarios where they are the people who initially trained them, getting back to finalize your training is okay, but when the adventurers are already somewhat experienced and/or “weird little guys”, it’s less of a fit. Academic magicians is one of my “modern pet peeves”
I think the only way to get away from the gold rush dressing and other things is to simply step away. Some won’t like it; others will be willing to try it and some of those will enjoy it. I think the key is to figure out how to make it enjoyably engaging. Of course, that’s the challenge with most any old school system that steps away from B/X and AD&D in some regard.
I’m an old school guy, though a classic style old school guy. I’m not tried-and-true OSR, just related. That means I’m not worried about complexity and crunch, so I think I can wrangle enough choices and consequences into those things to interest other old guys who like crunchy games that step away from the D&D formula.