That's kind of my point, though. It was there just to be there and didn't serve any vital story function. They gave lip-service to Spider-Man, but didn't understand how to actually make them elements that were necessary for the story.
(I have no problems with the MCU films dropping Peter's photography.)
That's also my point. The MCU movies put too much emphasis on the rest of the MCU.Well, he beat Mysterio. He pretty much barely managed to beat Vulture (which for my money is one of the more underwhelming final fights in a Spider-Man movie). He needed help from his guy in the chair to beat Shocker.
(Remember when he was actually holding his own against Avengers in Civil War?)
Can't a villain just hate and want to kill Spider-Man anymore?