I find it fascinating that people think the reason readers enjoy fanfic is JUST tropes. You can add as many fanfic tropes to your original fiction as you’d like, it will never have fanfic’s inherent appeal of being based on original content that the reader *already enjoys*

Fanfic is essentially in conversation with original media. Readers enjoy reinterpretation, or deeper exploration, or AUs, etc. Original work can be in conversation with other media, but the presence of tropes is not a replacement for that (very compelling) element

Original fiction trying to “be” fanfic via tropes is really a swing and a miss. It’s only a partial reason why fanfic is compelling. And, in my opinion, it’s much more worthwhile to focus on making original fiction worthy of someday having fanfic