I agree that the sidekick issue is problematic (from child endangerment to a voice of reason, to someone to talk to for exposition, to having (sometimes) an opposite, and more) and you feel it's a fundamental disagreement, but for me the question of sidekick or not before is a done deal, and sidekick or not now gets muddled in with all those crime-fighting kids Bruce keeps adopting or siring. Also, sadly, Batman's being dead, but I'm trying not to think about that.
I think there's a pendulum between making Batman one kind of Batman or another. Personally, just like with Jason, I'd so enjoy seeing how a writer handled blending a couple of the top versions. For comics. Movies, that's a whole different deal for me and I just think of comics and movies in two completely different spheres, with comics being a lot more complicated, because of the number of stories being told at one time and the long history.