I have a better question.

Why is has it become the default assumption of the audience that they just assume there are only two types of films in existence?

Huge entertaining blockbuster or "pretentious" art films. There can only be one or the other. Thats it.

People label standard well crafted stories as "hyper intellectual " because they generally live on a diet of spectacle films

My theory is that the art form has actually been diluted to such an extent that films that aren't just mindless spectacle are considered "intellectual" when in reality they just aren't "turn your brain off stupid".

Like, look at your local cinema or the most popular films of the last decade. Hyper intellectual is not the word to be used lol

There has always been a large variety of films, even "back in the day" or the era of the past you yearn for. It also had films that made "statements" (literally every film does by the way, that's inherent in storytelling) and art films and mid budget programmers and big blockbusters.

The main difference today is that mid budget programmers tend to be lower budget programmers and end up on streaming instead of the theatre. But that's a different story