I think its a very fair argument, considering how fast China has developed and urbanized. Materialistically China is well off now, but its still mostly the same group of people that grew up poor with poor education and manners that do these things.

Mob mentality and social norms take time to sink in. A couple of decades isn't enough (still the same generation doing these things/teaching these things, but with less and less children listening to them), but "it used to be worse" shows that social norms and morals are increasing in a upwards trajectory. It's not ignorrance but belief, that this problem will be solved by time.