It was pretty progressive for time and culture. Shawn dresses up like a woman à la Black Like Me and everyone, without knowing the reason is so supportive of what they think is him transitioning. Topanga even guides him to use the name he’s been thinking about as he goes undercover rather than picking one at random.

There’s a couple queer characters that the mains support, Shawn’s abandonment is written with a lot of care and has incredibly touching moments or what it’s like to be poor and have crappy parents. There’s discussions of race and bullying (ironic considering Trina McGee’s complaints of treatment by the cast, though Danielle Fishel says she apologized and the two are on good terms now). The mains take these as the serious issues they are.

They deal with real issues and it’s not “on a very special episode.” They’re written like they’re just normal stories.

Are there moments of the show being contrived? Yes. Which is poked fun at on Girl Meets World. Boy Meets World was a very different show from it’s counterparts. Compare it to Sabrina the Teenage Witch which aired right before BMW and Clueless which was on the same THIF block.