They are fighting to survive. Their stories don't have to be heroic- just interesting. Twice getting his trauma cleared up by having a bone broken is a neat free powerup and even the clones fighting Redestro boss were a cool scene, as was the tower crumbling. If you don't understand why long-standing villains are getting backstory during a time of duress, all of your previous comparisons to Naruto fall flat. This is shounen 101 story bite to accompany a fight; save animation budget, pad time, and flesh out the world. At this point, I don't even know what you are looking for here because your standards seem to shift constantly, so MhA probably isn't the show for you.
Arc still feels rushed, and I can now confirm scenes were omitted, which is too bad because I think the MvA could have taken the rest of the season and been a hype way to send it off.