Ohh also kind of related to that; in a lot of the more mainstream anime-looking stuff, even with guys and girls who do look the same age the guys always have narrower eyes than the girls, who get big wide moe eyes. idk it's always kind of bugged me -- feels almost like a different art style tbh XD I think I've been putting a disproportionate amount of time trying to figure out how to make guys still look masculine with big eyes since forever, just out of spite
I don't think it's ever completely necessary to have an exposition dump unless you want the plot to kick off as soon as possible. Which I get why people feel the need to do; you need to hook the reader quickly and if you take too long to set up, you're afraid they'd get bored and leave. We're always told as writers to get to the point as soon as possible.
But I feel like if the worldbuilding is big, then the worldbuilding kind of counts as 'the point' in and of itself? I guess with worldbuilding-heavy stories, I prefer the lore to be introduced in an organic, non-crammed way even if it does mean it take a while for the main plot to happen, so when the plot does kick off, I can "effortlessly internalize the information instead of fighting to remember it", as you put it.
With the worldbuilding-heavy series I'm planning, my approach is to start off with simpler, episodic plots that doesn't require as much lore to understand as the main plot, and introduce the lore to readers that way. I believe it's possible to introduce worldbuilding in an interesting way, so that people don't get bored even if it takes a while :]