I remember a scene in legend of korra where mako was in a PowerPlant with some other people and there were lightning bending. It’s interesting when superpowers are used for the mundane or innovation. But the majority of technology in bnha doesn’t look that advanced?

gunpuku-no-bosco:

One thing I really liked about Avatar is how each tribe exists at a different stage of societal evolution from our history. It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense with only four cultures, all with open travel and trade, but the principal of it is rooted in fact. Real wars have been fought with spears on one side and ironclads on the other.

A major theme of The Last Airbender was fear of industrialism. Technological supremacy was synonymous with military supremacy, until faced with a deus ex machina. 

Legend of Korra was a retraction of that ideology. Its message was one of unity between man, machine, and spirit. It literally ends with a marriage of the world’s leading industrialist and spiritualist.

So I have a couple explanations for why the BnHA world is underutilizing quirks compared to LoK.

First, it’s possibly due to narrator bias. We see the world through Deku’s eyes. As a quirkless hero-worshiper, Deku cannot come to grips with quirks being used for such mundane, utilitarian purposes. His worldview is built around an ideology that quirks must be used heroically.

Second, restrictive legislation of quirks have stalled human progress and squandered their potential. If Deku is giving us an accurate portrayal of the world, then fear of powerful individuals like AFO likely led to quirk prohibition, which eventually grew less stringent just for the hero industry, becoming what we see now.

As a final note, I think it’s reasonable for BnHA and LoK to handle their superpowers in radically different ways. Bending only comes in four flavors (with very rare exception) and pervades 30-50% of the population throughout history. Quirks cover infinite possibilities and very recently became common, only existing at all for 100 years or so.

So it’s the difference of a society that grew with simple superpowers, versus one with complex superpowers suddenly imposed upon it in modern times.