I dunno if you know, but marketing execs and executives in general have been woefully out of touch with general audiences for ages. Kids are smarter than what people give them credit for, and are faster learners than adults.
From my generation, most of the popular and beloved animated programming (that people look fondly on) were shows like batman: the animated series, sonic satam, animaniacs, freakazoid, roccos modern life, gargoyles etc. Shows that didn't talk down to younger audiences. They had sharp writing, proper characterization, and were much smarter than a lot of other animated programs at the time.
When I was really young my three favorite shows were david the gnome, ducktales, and eurekas castle. For david the gnome, it was fairly sophisticated for a show seen on nick jr. Ducktales, while toned down compared to the stories it was based on, was still quality. I havent seen eurekas castle in ages so I can't comment on it much.
But studio execs are typically risk averse and often underestimate audiences. Cartoon network cancelled an awesome Thundercats reboot 7 eps in a few years back likely for some stupid reason. Havent forgiven them for that.