Interesting that you say about moving to a fluffy world, since there are a few out there that would still go dark. Tarantino is on record for saying "who the fuck are them" when it comes to being forced to censor films and I'd say the John Wick movies the first in particular were eye-opening for the darkness and no holding back.
I've yet to see The Irishman incidentally, mainly as I didn't fancy the length of the film, although if we went back a few years to The Departed and Shutter Island (I recall you loved this one) then it gets interesting again.
I loved both of those. The Irishman was meh