you have good points. honestly, i dont see what was so special about naruto before SM. all he did was send a bunch of clones to be destroyed, then using the smoke created to sneak attack a rasengan on the opponent, then when that failed, he used the Fox's power. then he got SM and thats only been used sometimes. hes still relying on on the Fox. hes like John Cena, same routine, then some new stuff every once in a while.
however, some could say Sasuke de-evolved. he used Ninjutsu, Taijutsu and other cool stuff, with Sharingan improving these things. now, its all Sharingan.
i know you said dont bring sasuke in this, but its just to show its kinda dumb to pick on naruto when there are other people who are the same.