The thing is, I think the fluffy fandom can be palatable. And I base that on how the earliest fluffy artists can and still have their work on deviantart. Marcusmaximus has his fluffy art on deviantart, as did Coalheart. And if thats two examples that are no longer active in the fandom, then I’d mention AIDS and Pinkyfluffy, both of whom have active deviantart galleries with their fluffy art on it. (especially in the case of the latter)
Speaking as somebody from the MLP community for almost a decade now (yes, you can call me a brony hurrdurr ) I’m not bothered by the colourful horse gimmick (though I also do like natural horse colours) And while I understand fluffspeak is an important pillar within the fluffy community, and I do have my own headcanon and appreciation of the subject, I am aware that many people may dislike fluffies ‘precisely’ because of the fluffspeak. While I don’t think fluffies should be overpowered Mary Sue OCs, I do think that good stories can be told with normal speaking fluffies. (Postfluff being the best example) Its one of the more debateable things within the fluffy fandom, and something I’d have to go about in better length in an opinion piece.
I do agree that a unique aspect of Fluffy fiction is that it pushes certain boundaries its MLP predecessor, and similar mainstream ‘cute cartoon animal’ stories don’t. I like to cite Avocado, because to me that is the type of story only fluffy pony fiction can bring. The same would apply to Crazystein, Meh’s NISC, the aforementioned Postfluff and so on. These are stories that are comparable to stuff like Farthing Wood, the Rats of NIMH and Watership Down. In that sense, and yes, I think the maturity and controversial nature of fluffies as a genetically engineered animal reflecting the follies of Man, would best suit it.
But the problem is that a lot of that nuance is gone. It was a nuance that guided a lot of the earlier fluffy pony artists and writers, but got lost over time as people became more focused on “shock for the sake of shock” or “trying to own the bronies”, even though the material was no longer anything close to MLP. I do agree its not something that can easily be borught back, if at all, but I do appreciate the people who tried to take a bit more mature approach to fluffies.