I hate the "it's [X] but with [other thing]" description of anything, because 70% of the time it's not even that, it's either more or less original than that, too
this problem extends beyond furries, too. it happens a lot in comics (and also to a lesser degree with TV and movies) where the primary marketing is about the "representation", whether within the comic or from the author itself. dont get me wrong; representation is really good and really important, but it needs to be a foregone conclusion within the media. nobody advertises a comic as having "a good representation of lineart and color" because that's just something you expect when you read a comic. media with (for example) queer people having queer experiences NEEDS to be as remarkable as having a red-hair character or a character with long hair. if representation is your main selling point, then the only audience you get for your work are people who are analyzing and judging the work based primarily on how well it accomplishes this nebulous goal of "representation". they'll grade it based on how Good it is at being [demographic], and that's a shitty way to analyze art.
the audience you WANT are people who resonate with the story, which is, guess what: far bigger and beyond your idea of the target representation! like, I make queer comics, i make comics about queer characters, and my primary motivation for making my comics is to represent my experiences and the experiences of my friends. but if I don't make a good story, a story that will reach lots of different kinds of people, then my representation is wasted because it's only reaching people who already expect it. the point of representation is to reach people who are not expecting it or looking for it. people from ALL walks of life will resonate with a Good Story, and then the representation is actually doing some work.
this also applies to furries. by all means, make your furry media all you want. but I think you're gonna find that you make far better art, and that it has far more resonance with Your audience, if you focus more on making a Good Story or making Good Art than if you just try to make Furry story or Furry art. imo "furry" media is only as good as it is received by people who aren't furries. because hey, maybe it'll turn some non-furries into furries. that seems like a way better goal than just giving furries something they already expect. and it'll make you a better creator too.
I suppose to elaborate on this point, I'd wager the whole representation-as-the-main-selling-point trend (and along with it, "it's [x] but with [furries/other thing that personally appeals to you!]) is itself in turn symptomatic of a culture that just... doesn't value original work much at all. Capitalism is for a big part to blame in that, but it's not the only puzzle piece at work, I wouldn't say; the constant stream of ultimately perfectly interchangeable superhero flicks and how people continue to line up for them is definitely most emblematic of it, however. Slop1 has always existed, but as multiple people have said before me, there's been a real flip from it being just the stuff you go to in absence of anything more worthwhile, to simply pass the time, to the main feature of one's life that people actively defend as if it were high art. Where that trend itself comes from I couldn't tell you (probably multiple factors and a slow creep over the decades fueled by economic constraints, if I had to guess), but what results is the big movie studios, AAA developers, etc. etc. rehashing the same old shit over and over because it'll make them more money than trying anything new, and the smaller time folks feeling compelled to join in lockstep continuing with whatever caught them their original audience to begin with, because failing to bring in return customers means you lose your only source of income and making something original is, ultimately, A Risk.
That isn't to excuse the current state of affairs, however. If anything? While I'm not anyone's boss, if you're in a position to take risks with your work, where a few flops here and there won't leave you in the gutter... take them. Not just in furry, but frankly all across the board we desperately need more media that tries something new, made first and foremost because the creator had an idea that they just wanted to get out there to the world, damnit without being declawed for the sake of palatability for the sake of more easily finding an audience; many of the classics we remember now, we remember not because they were commercial successes in their own time (they very often weren't), but because decades down the line, someone stumbled upon them again and thought "god damn people have been sleeping on this".
And I think we need more of those.
1. Artistic works that exist more for the sake of being a product than for artistic expression; movies, music, videogames, literature, what have you of an often formulaic nature made with no real purpose in mind other than to make money.