Machiavelli was an incredibly astute author and political commentator and people should read him (though obviously his writing on war and politics is about warlords in early modern Italy and classical Rome, not the present day). He was tortured by the Medicis, so he had a lot of bitter personal experience with the people he was writing about. He never claimed that despotic rulers were actually the good guys, either, just that it's better to be feared than loved if you can't have both, in the context of a time when cardinals had people assassinated on the regular and most of Europe was run by tyrants. The Discourses on Livy go into more detail on what he actually thought good governance should be.
Nietzsche was an insane virgin, but he did actually offer some decent insight into how political radicalism arose in Europe after the "death of God" and decline of the religious fundamentalism that led to the 30 years' war and treaty of Westphalia back in the 17th century. This culminated in the French revolution and then subsequently communism and fascism hundreds of years later. He wasn't really that nihilistic either, more about how people had to make their own meaning from life when nothing was ordained.
Now, the "for kids" bit I do have issue with, but that's also my problem with anime.
Okay, let me clarify:
I didn't mean Machiavelli and Nietszche have nothing to say. I meant that their ideas get rehashed in pop culture, and said pop culture authors get credit for Machiavelli and Nietszche's ideas as their own.
As for "for the kids", I mean it's dumbed down, like a Children's Bible but for edgy philosophers.
Part of the reason I gave up on Game of Thrones is that the whole theme of Realpolitik was hopelessly cynical; everyone's corrupt and scheming, you can't change the system, and everyone you put your hope in is gonna get clapped, so why even bother?
There's enough bleakness in Clown World IRL. I'm not looking for more reminders of Clown World. Ambiguities, trade-offs, and sacrifices in storytelling do not require everything to be all grimdark all the time.
One of the reasons humans have stories is to inspire people to confront and overcome adversity. As Neil Gaiman once wrote, "Fairy tales are, in a sense, more true; not because they tell us dragons are real, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten".
I get the point of gritty realism and that the good guys don't always win.
Blood Meridian is one of my favorite novels. But pop culture these days seems incapable of any nuance between binary capeshit and angsty, woe-is-everything grimdark.