Im aware, It would change a lot of the current story but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. I personally just like the idea of Deku being someone that uses his knowledge of heroes, quirks, and his intelligence to undermine the abilities of certain heroes and villains. At least, more so than Deku getting OFA.
That being said, the core ideas of MHA could stay the same, they would just have to be used differently. It would still be MHA to me.
Horikoshi couldve gone down that path if he wanted, I have faith in his writing abilities.
Because a lot of his accomplishments during the first chapters were done without him using a quirk. Him understanding he cant use his quirk to its fullest yet was interesting, but him overcoming obstacles with his quick thinking and not quirk was even moreso. I just wish they capitalized on that aspect a bit more imo
His accomplishments in the beginning, however, were meaningless BECAUSE he didn’t have a Quirk to back them up.
He attempted to save Bakugo, but would have simply died. He never would have gotten into the hero course if he didn’t get OFA. His first fight vs Bakugo, he would have gotten stomped on because the people he’s fighting are not dumb. They don’t go easy on him just cause he’s fighting Quirkless, and Bakugo is just as smart as him if not smarter when it comes to fighting.In the USJ? Quirkless Deku didn’t do anything there.
The best of Quirkless Deku is from the sports festival, a place where it’s a bunch of fresh students doing mostly competitive if somewhat damaging activities. A safe school setting where people can stop things.
Quirkless Deku gets annihilated by Stain, he never even dreams of touching Muscular (who would blitz him), Overhaul is lmao, Wolfram eviscerates him/uses any tech he has against him, he gets stomped by the now trained JT students… and anything past that is damn near impossible.
The only way to compensate for the MASSIVE power cliffing that swiftly becomes present is by giving him a bunch of tech… but that ignores so much of the personal development Deku goes through when he DOES beat those challenges with his own bare hands, knowing the weight of All Might’s legacy, the legacy of bearing the power of the Number One, puts on him.
If he just is a bootleg Bruce Wayne/Tony Stark? What development would be even have? How would his relationship with Bakugo ever get fixed without the connecting piece of All Might declaring Deku his successor? Or his relationship with Shigaraki? The twisted parallels they have become meaningless. AFO wouldn’t even care for Deku.
The series would be unrecognizable with a fully Quirkless Deku, and while I can see the merit of wanting an Anime Iron Man/Batman type story, I think the unique experience provided by what Deku is makes him far better.
Not to mention: tech can’t go plus ultra.