Looking in on Sonic tone discourse is kinda insane because there seems to outright be an opposition to the mere idea of comedy for some 2000s era fans, even within with a darker and serious plot.
Like, I can totally understand wanting a story with higher stakes, or taking offense to self-depriacting "wink at the screen" humour, but it's kinda foolish to make anything for children without some level of humour - ESPECIALLY if the plot surrounding the characters is dark. That's not underestimating children's intelligence, that's just what you generally do when you aim for that demographic. That applies to Pixar; Avatar; 2010s Cartoon Network; and every other example you can think of as "taking kids seriously"