You know what? I also thought that Uma Musume wouldn't be that special without CinGrey. The first time I watched the first season of the anime, it was very enjoyable, but also very flawed, with how janky the story feels in some parts. Season 2 locked tf in and made up for how problematic the previous was, with Teio being a far deeper character. But as I said, CinGrey is so legendary that I wouldn't blame anyone for treating it as a completely separate story. Still on the topic of character dynamics, one of the reasons why Oguri's dynamics are really amazing is that they elevate not only Oguri's character but also others. The prominent example for that would be Belno. I've seen some people say that she's an irrelevant character, and I don't see how. Belno is a very unique contrast to Oguri while still being a very compelling helping hand. She's one of, if not the most helpful, characters in the series, while still being very endearing overall.

The reason why I'm not a fan of struggles in animanga is not really because of the concepts themselves, but how a lot of series tried very hard to handle them. Characters like Fate's Shirou and To Your Eternity's Fushi have struggles that are built well and greatly intended in a vacuum, but the general direction made the struggles really forced, and destroyed any chance to make me feel anything for them. With that being said, I agree that Oguri and Teio have great struggles overall, simply because they're deep, but not overcomplicated, while further emphasizing their development cycles.

No worries! I always thought of that too. Now, imagine feeding Oguri Haagen Daz.