Coming of Age stories and 'leveling up'

I know the appeal of coming-of-age is to a character mature from adolescence into adulthood but then I find this quote from a blog:

Quote:

Growing up is tough. There is a danger in presenting ‘coming of age’ as a kind of graduation, in a way how one ‘levels up’ into a more powerful tier of character. In writing about Hanamaru Kindergarten I looked into how maturity is less like the leveling up metaphor, but is rather like hygiene. You, I need to keep at it.

You know there is a danger to portraying coming-of-age as being something like leveling up but adulthood and maturity is much more complex than that. I am in my late twenties but I feel as though that I am seventeen and I feel like I am going through high school despite being a college student. I thought I was going to be mature when I become 21 but I am learning that physical age isn't a sole indicator of maturity. There is also this:

Quote:

It’s even less like brushing teeth, but more like sterilizing an operating room after using it or before using it. I made and still make lots of mistakes as an adult. The world digiboy says he’s found freedom in isn’t a very easy place. It’s one thing to say you’re going to create your own path, but you’ll find that the masonry and engineering are laborious and back-breaking.

It isn't an easy task and its even easier to fall back into old habits despite making progress. Not everyone matures at the same rate and not everyone goes through these neat little character arcs that we find in books. Still, is there a temptation to portraying character development and bildungsroman stories as 'leveling up' for the final boss? What stories play with this trope?

Coming of Age stories and 'leveling up'