The point isn't to idolize them but to learn a lesson or see something through the lens of somebody else, just like your example of Crime and Punishment. Eras in Comics have different values and you notice more in modern times that heroes are often flawed instead of being more of personification of an ideal.

Tony Stark is a billionaire playboy that doesn't give a shit about anybody but himself. Nearly dies in an ambush, captured, forced to contruct a missile or die. He chooses to use the tools at his disposal and his ingenuity (and the sacrifice of the man that saved him) to escape.

Even though he makes it out, the men and women in the convoy that were there to protect him didn't get to go home. In addition to seeing the effects of his choices first hand, he vows to do good for society and try to prevent his weapons from being used against innocents.

People like base themes, there's ways to build off of smaller ideas (like Iron Man vs. MCU as a whole). Yes it's bloated, yes it's simple, but sometimes that's enough.