A couple of thoughts. Despite my background, I don't necessarily look for realism in fight scenes--watching someone who actually knows what they're doing is kind of boring, since making it look cool also means making it less efficient and less effective. Plus, I train something real. I don't mind watching something crazy if it looks cool! So my issue is less with some of the things you mention, simply because it's fantasy or whatever and I don't care.

Oh trust me. I totally agree. I tend to call martial arts films "ballet for men" and tell people if they want to see what real fights are like, they're better off watching a boxing match or two drunk frat boys wrestling in the backyard in a sad attempt to impress any onlooking ladies. That said, I could have sworn you've said before you also like to indulge in the random martial art film, and since I knew you teach Kung Fu, you'd be a good shout out.

As for the suspicious editing, I think that's a huge part of the problem. In a lot of action movies, martial arts and otherwise, there tends to be camera trickery involved to make things feel more dramatic, so strikes and blows feel more impactful, actors seem more imposing, etc. You can have good camera editing to hide a subpar performer, like Finn Jones, a solid, continuous shot to show off the talents of the performer, like Jet Li and Jackie Chan, or good camera editing to complement the action that's taking place on screen. I think part of where Iron Fist fails is that they had continuous shots to show off the performers, but the performers weren't that good.

As for the cage scenes? Those were bad stereotypes. Like "Bloodsport isn't a realistic premise" level of bad. I gave up after Episode 10, where the climatic fight scene involving Danny Rand and Davos escaping from the compound and taking on waves of enemies left a horrible taste in my mouth. You should watch the second half of that episode. It's laughably bad.