Batman is clearly more popular among the younger generations, mostly because of how successful he’s been in outside media. His movies, video games, cartoons, and TV shows have both been more numerous and more popular than Supes. Supes meanwhile has sadly never been given to someone who loves him the way Dini and Timm love Batman, so his stuff tends to be either outright bad like the DCEU or ok to mediocre like the DCAU.
He’s iconic because he’s the one who founded the superhero genre and because he’s the one who made the first leap to the big screen and also founded the superhero movie. Feige still has his MCU people watch Donner Superman to study how it works.
And your memory of Batman is incorrect. Batman has only recently really solidified his status as top dog. Before he was almost cancelled numerous times. The first time he was saved by Robin being created. Then he was saved by the Adam West TV show. Then he was saved by O’Neil revamping him. It was the two hit combo of DKR and TKJ which put Batman on the path to dominance, but Supes still outsold him well into the 21st century. Really I wanna say it was Hush and the Nolan movies which cemented Batman as top dog.
You know I’ve seen a lot of people say Batman fans are more accepting of different takes, but that’s not really true imo. The BTAS fans were screaming bloody murder when Brave and the Bold was first released, and to this day there are people who hate that show. A lot of Batman fans didn’t like Affleck’s killing. Adam West’s show was referred to as Batman’s “old shame” for years, and it was only recently that people started to warm up to it. I mean hell, Miller used to brag that he was the one who “gave Batman his balls back” because he *rescued* Bats from the TV show.
A lot of them have done well regarded work. Morrison for example wrote what’s considered the GOAT Superman story and his work on the character elsewhere is generally liked. Alan Moore’s Superman work is held up to be some of the best work ever done with the character. Loeb wrote some well regarded Superman stories. Azzarelo has a well regarded Lex Luthor story under his belt even if his work on the main title was a flop. Scott Snyder’s Unchained book seems to be liked even if it’s not considered a classic. Rucka’s Lois Lane book is one of my favorites. Busiek’s Superman stuff is fantastic. Personally I think a lot of the problems were rooted in Berengaza been quarantined to the Superman books as a “punishment”.
Part of the problem though is that Supes and Bats scratch different itches so to speak. Batman primarily exists in a world that revolves around crime, noir, and horror. There are some exceptions like with Morrison but that’s generally what people want from Batman. Superman meanwhile exists in a world revolving around science fiction and journalism. Batman’s Rogues are mainly mobsters with gimmicks. Superman’s tend to be aliens or other pulp sci fi threats like mad scientists or fifth dimensional imps. That’s not to say they don’t occasionally dip into each other’s worlds, Batman has fought crazy science fiction threats and Superman has dealt with street crime or noir, but the cores of each are going for different things. I don’t think Superman is “harder” to write for personally, I just think that what he brings to the table doesn’t really interest a lot of Batman writers, and when they’re put on the book they thus tend to struggle.
Well Superman has had some very extensive revamps. The Post Crisis Superman Byrne that people consider to be “classic Superman” is a completely different character from the Pre Crisis guy. Johns and Busiek’s revamped Superman is also different from the Byrne guy and of course the New 52 Superman was different from Johns Superman too. So there is a point to be made about how Batman has managed to retain his core while Superman has changed dramatically, but I think the root of that has to do with their motivations. Batman’s parents get shot so he wants revenge and/or justice so he trains to fight crime. So simple and straightforward DC has never needed to mess with it. Superman meanwhile isn’t motivated by Krypton blowing up or even by the Kents deaths in takes where they’re gone. He’s motivated by the upbringing he gets from the Kents, which is a more nebulous motivation. I personally think it’s more relatable, most don’t become doctors or whatever because their parents got killed but because they want to help people, but it also means that when you change some in thing about Supes there tends to be a domino effect because his core is so much more shapable.
I agree with a lot of the criticisms you made about Supes. Newspapers are dying. The idea of Middle America holding stronger morals than urban people is pretty laughable today in a way it might not have been during the crime epidemics of the 20th century. I don’t think making Clark a blogger was a bad idea at all, but maybe a podcast or whatever would be a better idea. Ultimately the core is that Supes likes to write because it puts him on an equal level with everyone else because his powers don’t help him there