There's a fallacy to your argument: the myth of colorblindness. While you may choose to ignore the coloration of the black people you deal with daily, they aren't afforded the same privilege. It's often done with the best of intentions, but there's no virtue in avoiding any issues of race so that you don't uncomfortably dwell upon them.
And, for Black Panther, it is a pretty big character point that he's African. As the prince of an African nation, he's about as culturally apart from Luke Cage as he is from Steve Rogers, pigmentation notwithstanding.
If you are interested in good Black Panther stories, you really, really should read Christopher Priest's run. It crosses over into New York without ignoring Wakanda, it addresses issues of race without becoming Bamboozled, and it cannot help but show you T'Challa's awesomeness by his deeds. Without, uh, delving into the realm of bad Mary Sue fanfic.