I liked G1. Obviously, as I'm 33 and still a Transformer fan
Was it Shakespeare? No, but even Shakespeare wasn't always Shakespeare (yes, the bard did have his bombs).
A lot of what happened in the G1 cartoon you just can't "do" anymore.
Have robots get drunk? Nope, can't do that--kids might think if Megatron can do it, so can they!
Have robots pretend to be gods? Nope, can't do that--that would be insulting primitive societies.
Have a middle-eastern nation named Carbomb-ia? Nope--that might insult them... oh heck, even back in the 80s everyone knew what they were like lol
Or hey, how about take the main character, kill him off violently after 2 seasons, then bring him back as a zombie who commits suicide? Nah... that would 'scar' the kiddies.
Heck, they even gave the main human character an OLDER female girlfriend... (Spike was too young to drive, yet Carly is going to college... hmmm) that's something you rarely see in the media at all, let alone a cartoon. And she wasn't stereotypically bitchy either lol
A lot of the episodes dealt with "issues," but without shoving the moral down your throat.