The faults you listed seem to be strictly based off the original DBZ anime version. Have you tried Kai? Gets the point across much faster and kills a lot of the exaggeration.
As for offering nothing else but fighting? Yeah, I disagree strongly. Character growth, wonderful character interactions, lovable characters, simple yet likable story arcs, interesting back stories, great music, a unique, magical charm, etc. I'm not going to preach to you that DBZ is some super-duper deep and complex series, because it isn't. However, there is some depth to it that generally flies over most people's heads.
Another thing I'll add: DBZ wasn't originally made to be a "wannabe badass" anime, as you put it. No, it's the original Funimation English dub that did that. Why do you think they changed the music to more "hardcore" stuff and tried their best to make "hip and cool" dialogue? Funimation thought that they'd get DBZ more popularity by doing this, in which they did succeed in doing so, but they also ended up butchering half of DBZ in the process and gave people the wrong impression of it.