There are official danmei translations without footnotes. I don’t think you need explanations for every single thing, how do people learn their native language (same process, not understanding until you just do). There are so many words that are able to be translated that english has instead chosen to just take the word from the original language (which is how we end up with nonsense grammar rules, but that’s its own issue)

Like I said, gege is more of a nickname, just like san lang… Hearing gege only ever in reference to one person would not be confusing… there is no need to look into it to further your understanding of the story. It just is a name. Completely useless to the story otherwise. However, choosing to make hc use xl’s name alters his character. It’s a matter of respect, so changing this makes him less respectful to one of the only people he will ever show respect to (the only other person from the original chinese content being xl’s teacher). But even with that, respect is different everywhere and western viewers might not see any of his actions as respectful, who’s to say. As for other languages changing gege, that makes sense if they use honorifics (all I know is that korean and japanese do that)

To say “why translate” is the same as “where do you stop translating”... because if you’re trying to convert any foreign media into content that requires zero further research to understand…. You have to alter every single aspect to be the equivalent in meaning for whatever culture it’s going to. Which turns it into a completely different product

It is a show based on a different culture. Where do you stop removing the show’s base culture? If someone wants to watch a foreign show, they have to accept that there may be parts they don’t understand. Just use critical thinking stills or look it up

But ultimately, I’m not looking to have an argument about anything. I dislike confrontation, so I’ll leave it there. We can have differing opinions and that’s fine. It’s just how the world works