I think you kind of missed the point on some things. At least for my personal view of things it's not entirely accurate. I will try to explain myself.
Wow... All these supposed hard core Marvel fans were apparently more attached to Chris Evans and RDJ than to the characters of Iron Man and Cap. That's... strange.
I am not really attached to Chris Evans or RDJ. If they leave the MCU, then so be it. In fact, I might even be getting tired of RDJ a bit. However, I don't think that just making Iron Man 4 in 2021 with some new 30-year-old playing Tony Stark would be the best idea. I'd much rather have these characters replaced by other characters. Mostly completely new and unrelated characters (so just have an MCU without Iron Man, that still has Ant-Man, Doctor Strange, Black Panther, etc. and keep introducing new characters), but in some cases legacy characters might work well too (So someone else becoming Cap, like Bucky or Sam, or someone with a similar theme like a member of the Bradley family or America Chavez). I think the MCU is a unique opportunity to show what the Marvel Universe would be like if time actually progressed normally, instead of keeping popular characters that don't age for decades. A large part of the appeal of the MCU for me is that it's a cohesive universe where events influence one another, which would also be undermined by recasting someone younger just to keep the character around for longer.
Online is filled with people that like to let us all know how much they dislike something AND how they are somehow in tune with the feelings of the majority. And yet... They still make Transformer films directed by Michael Bay
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So when people say in places like this that they are going to quite seeing MCU films if they ever replaced Evans, RDJ, Ruffalo ect (seeing especially that we've replaced friggin' Banner HOW MANY TIMES ALREADY, and the popularity of the character INCREASED each time, so... Yeah...) I just add them to the pile of sufferers of Internet Iconoclast Syndrome.
I'm not the majority and I can't really speak for them, but I think that in some cases the actor is an important part of why people like the character. If it weren't for RDJ's portrayal of Tony, who knows what might've become of the MCU. Had they cast Tom Cruise or Nicholas Cage, would people have loved him as much? I can't possibly know, but I doubt it. Replacing him now could prove even more problematic, as a new actor should live up to the previous one, stay consistent with the character and not come across as someone just doing an impression, all at the same time.
Yes, Banner has been recast 3 times now (Bixby-->Bana-->Norton-->Ruffalo), however you should keep in mind that two out of three times this was for a completely different universe, and thus technically a different (version of a) character (depending on how you look at it. Are 616 Reed Richards and the Maker the same character or not?). The one time it did stay within the same universe, it was after one movie, and a movie that was not hugely succesfull at that. After something like Iron Man the reaction was a lot more positive, and RDJs portrayal was an important reason I believe (based on anecdotal evidence, so I might be wrong here). Plus he's been around for 8 years/5 movies and counting. I honestly would rather have they reshot all scenes with Edward Norton and replaced him with Ruffalo, but that's not going to happen of course. I'll probably still watch the movies if they recast the roles of Tony, Steve, Thor, Bruce, etc., but that doesn't mean I won't dislike it or won't keep thinking about how much better it could've been if they had decided to just move on.
Just my two cents.
