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Notes -
My idea isn't exactly a refutation of the concept of a Mary Sue - more like an explanation of why I think it happens. I think it also comes with the insight that this isn't a problem unique to female characters in established franchises. (I'm not convinced simple power creep is enough to explain Boruto and Gohan.)
I also think there might be some connection to the "5 minute courtship" problem some people see with old Disney movies. Virtually none of the old princess movies actually end with the couple getting married after short courtship periods - usually, there's a scene where the prince saves the princess, followed immediately by a scene where the couple gets married, but some unspecified amount of time probably passed between the two events. That's just not how audiences remember it, because we don't get to see a montage of all the time that passed.
I think the original Star Wars trilogy is affected by the same "offscreen action" effect. We don't see all of the time Luke spends training on screen (though we do see some of it), and by the third movie he's a fully fledged Jedi. Modern filmmakers trying to mirror his story arc, might be using the "onscreen" training time as their frame of reference instead of thinking about the story from an in-universe perspective. Doesn't mean they're not guilty of bad writing - I think it is just one of the many issues that can happen when fans get old enough to work on the franchises they love.
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