The rejection of fate and destiny, and that hard work is worth it, even if it can't always beat talent. A major thing that Naruto did that a lot of other battle shounen did not do is have the good guys lose some of the time. A lot of battle shounen have a small loss, but an overall win later. Naruto didn't do that because things can't always work out.
There were some failures and Pyrrhic victories in Hunter x Hunter, but the good guys won in every arc. Hunter x Hunter is better than Naruto, but Naruto is definitely not a trashy show until after episode 135.
I see what you mean. Naruto starts off with lots of hardships and struggles and thins out to the end in that regard.