You know, I grew up on Americanized anime of the 70's/80's, and was always amazed at how much more intelligent, interesting, and visually impressive the asian versions were. For instance, one popular show was "Battle of the Planets". In a nutshell: good vs. evil, drippy sentiment, two-dimensional personalities, and typical low-quality Hanna-Barbera style drawings. It was a cool 'concept', though, so it was nonetheless well received by us pre-teenagers.
But then a few years later, when I saw what the show was actually based on ("Gatchaman!"), I was completely amazed. The animation was crisp and full of momentum. The characters and plot were complex and complicated. The "bad guy" was indeed a threat to humankind, but his/her/it's motivation was actually to protect the Earth from the creatures it had "planted" there millenia before - us! Needless to say, the Japanese version is a great piece of film, whereas the American version is, well, basically junk.
One of my absolute favorite anime films, by the way, is Miyazaki's Spirited Away. A true masterpiece, in every sense of the word.
So yes, I think it would be very unfair to criticize the entire genre of anime. Which isn't to say it doesn't have it's share of garbage, it does (and what genre doesn't?).