The viewer is aging out of the demo, while the demo stays the same. Pokemon wants to appeal to 10 year olds. If you watch it for 7 years and you turn 17, it's still appealing to 10 year olds. Nothing wrong with that.
Protagonist will typically be aged in the key demo so it's easier for those kids to relate to the character and self insert themself into the fantasy. I don't think it's all that deep.
I'm rewatching the Sopranos. The main character is a 40-something, fat, balding Italian mobster. It shows that...
I know for a fact that I've done this once (through 3DS hacked Virtual Console, but no save states) playing through it again after almost ten years, I find myself left wondering how I managed to do it. Each of these early game dogs/wolves must be as strong as Freeza himself.