It's all on the presentation layer. Like you can say the matches didn't matter but the commentary stressed things like Pac would have a legit argument at getting a title shot with another high profile win here, and how overall win/loss records matter, etc etc. NXT doesn't outright treat matches as meaningless like WWE often does but it doesn't to me feel like many matches matter much beyond in a vacuum a lot of the time.
And I guess the key here is
I don't associate things like heel faction beatdowns bad guest commentators pointless celebrity appearances dumb unclean finishes (that don't involve distractions/interference into a schoolboy)
With WWE. I associate them with wrestling. WWE overuses them but like it's not inherently a WWE trait for me. It's mostly the stuff I mentioned specifically that gives WWE specifically negative associations for me. That doesn't mean it doesn't have other dumb stuff it does but on the presentation layer those are the important things to avoid and AEW did that and NXT doesn't as much it's mostly the commentary really and I said as much (NXT cutting to commercials during matches more often is also a big thing-- though they did it less last night for at least part of the show I'm not convinced that'll be the norm)
But I mean literally the first segment of NXT on USA's first show was Triple H blowing smoke up NXT's ass to put it in perspective a bit. I'm pretty sure literally every match on the first show ended with a finisher move or distraction too.
To me as far as presentation goes those kind of things are a hell of a lot more important than the arenas looking smaller as far as it feeling like a legit alternative.