I ended up with more or less the same first impression. At least based on the trailer, Altered Carbon looks like it's got a bad case of modern Hollywood; everything is extremely polished, but unmoving to the point of banality. Fairly few movies or TV shows evoke any sort of more complex emotions beyond love, hate, hope, happiness, sadness, jumpscares (and specifically not, like, gaze-into-the-abyss existential horror.) What the majority of producers is optimizing for is ROI; you get more eyeballs the more digestable your product is. And, I mean, there's nothing wrong with movies or shows that are just entertaining. Entertainment doesn't have to be "challenging", it's just that I'd love it if there was more stuff out there that really sort of wrenches you. The sort of narrative that leaves you feeling like crying after it's over, or that deals with something taboo (how often do you see e.g. men crying due to fear?)
I agree. It's kind of like the obesity epidemic, though. Economics aside, we're evolutionarily hard-wired to go for ROI (in terms of benefit per unit of energy expenditure). Once you've had a taste of that easy-but-empty fix (distinguishable from narcotics only by degree), it's very hard to re-train yourself to go for something heavier. As with anything it's balance, but it takes a lot of work to maintain.