WOOOOHOOOO!! WOOHOOHOO!! WOOHOOHOOOO!!

What I like about the South Park fandom is that I have never once felt like anyone was doing age ups for the latter reason. In fact, there's a myriad of motivations people have for not keeping the kids as 4th graders in fan content.

To make them feel more relatable to the adults in the community.

Because these guys were 3rd graders in 1998 and would be much older if they aged normally after that.

Because there are some episodes where they don't act or get treated like kids at all.

Because their voice actors are very obviously grown ups.

Because the characters get put into shocking situations within canon and it's less uncomfortable to imagine them as older.

Because there's more story potential if they have money and freedom.

Etc.

DR has like a dozen pairings where there is at least onesided attraction in the source material. Entire essays can be written about some of the ships, how the characters in them play into things, the themes tied to them, why they work, how they compliment each other, etc. And the director both intended all of this and celebrates fans getting creative with the characters who he put tons of thought into.

Meanwhile in SP one of the most popular pairings is mostly just big because the colors look good. Or because two people were platonically nice to each other one time. Or it's two characters who have never interacted. And when a pairing *is* canon odds are that it's so frustrating that it's hard to want anything to do with it.