I made a post on the Batman subreddit saying I would like to see a Batman story where Batman has a civilian supporting cast similar to Peter Parker or Matt Murdock. Bruce Wayne had friends as a kid and went to exclusive private schools. I find it hard to believe his friends didn’t sympathize with him. I think it would be cool if during Batman’s first year he’s obsessed and only wants to be Batman and doesn’t care about being Bruce Wayne, but later on comes to realize he actually wants his friends around and comes to accept being ‘Bruce Wayne.’ That post got downvoted.
Bruce had a childhood friend who came from a wealthy family named Tommy Elliot. Another one was Mallory Maxon. It would be cool if Bruce opened up to Tommy or Mallory or any of his rich friends or a rich love interest. Bruce Wayne doesn’t have to be this statue with no friends who’s overly obsessed with being Batman. Daredevil and even Arrow (which is basically just a Batman show) prove the main character can do both.
Same with Spider-Man. He doesn’t have to constantly be poor and keep getting beat down time after time. With how smart Peter Parker is, it makes no sense for him to always be broke. Dude could get any job he truly wants. And this man is personal friends with at least four billionaires. I find it hard to believe Harry, Tony, Reed, or Danny wouldn’t say, ‘Dude, you can get a part-time job working for me and I’ll give you 200k a year,’ and the best part is since they know who he is, they can give him time off to do Spider-Man stuff.
But people don’t want to see these characters grow or be normal. They want Batman to remain a friendless statue and have Spider-Man keep taking constant Ls.
For Batman specifically I think it starts as a way to clean up Gotham. He’ll quit just as soon as Gotham is cleaned up. But of course it’s a neverending task. Plus even if he cleaned up Gotham, how can he stop there? How can he stop when there is so much left to do.
But! That’s why I like Batman working with the Justice League and Superman specifically. He can never go back to being Bruce Wayne, he’ll always be Batman, but at least with Superman he gets his moments of comfort, however brief they may be.
Batman is cursed to be Batman and not Bruce Wayne. That’s his character.
I’m not against changing some aspects of his character. And as you noted other characters strike a balance. But those are other characters. If we’re changing too much of a character, maybe we just tell that different character’s story instead.
As for Spider-Man, that is a character who, depending on the story and timeline of that story, does try to strike a balance. In terms of being poor I think it’s a matter of being independent. Whenever he works for someone, they tend to want to do things their way. Even if he agrees or he’s doing what he wanted to do, there is still that layer of dependence.