Zyword of the Week episode 3- Get Off My Lawn

OK, so I have begun watching Mobile Suit Gundam, currently streaming on Crunchyroll, and I love it. Cool robots, expert plotting, smart protagonists, and some neat military flourishes to boot. It's only available in dub, but it's okay because the dub is good. However, there is one thing that bothers me, or rather, three:

Those dang kids! I HATE them! They are ugly. They are dated. They are completely out of place. Every time they appear, it runs the show into the ground. It's as if Yoshiyuki Tomino had some great plan with the characters, (apparently one of them has a big role in Zeta Gundam) but decided "Eh, whatevs," and made THIS instead. I am aware that Tomino was trying to avoid the Super Robot tropes as much as possible, so this really begs the question: WHAT THE HELL WAS HE THINKING!?!?!?!?!? Oh, well. Great show otherwise.