This thread seems like wearing rose-tinged glasses reminiscing about the good old days to me.
There's nothing stopping your DM from drawing from mythic traditions and putting stuff into his game setting. But a game system that wants to be able to cater to multiple settings has to incorporate certain genericness. A game created specifically for an ancient Egypt setting would allow you to run a game in ancient Egypt very well, but you probably won't be able to run a vikings game very well.
As for cartoony superpowers and stupid, shallow things in modern fantasy...mythic heroes are often defined by their ridiculous, badass powers and weapons. Cu Chulainn had his magic spear Gae Bolg and when he gets angry, he transforms into the Hulk and kills everything around him. Achilles had DR infinity everywhere except on his heel. Heracles had str stat greater than the gods. Gilgamesh was 2/3 god, not half, not 1/4, two thirds....he's more impossible than a
3e PC with too many half-x templates stacked on.
My favourite is Perseus who was the original D&D adventurer. He got sent on a quest to kill Medusa but he wasn't strong enough so he equiped himself with some phat loot like a magic sword, helmet of invisibility, and sandals of flying. Using his shield as a mirror, he cut off Medusa's head and bagged more phat loot. When he met monsters/people he didn't like, he pulled out the head as an improvised wand of flesh to stone and petrified people. He saved the princess, married her and went off to rule a kingdom somewhere.
That's only heroic myth. You get into creation myths and some of it reads like the writer was on a crazy acid trip. The gods rape and commit incest regularly (and those were the good gods). They cheat and lie and get pissed off at mortal for random reasons. Some myths were more hardcore than modern porn. Don't go putting stuff on a pedestal simply because they're old.
And yet another word from our sponsors
