I feel like that's where UFC got into trouble. If they had presented themselves like boxing from the beginning, I think the uproar over how wild and out of control the sport was would have been more muted. Obviously, they needed weight classes and whatnot but I think a lot of why people were upset was it was presented kind of like WWF & WCW when they were still in their kiddie era.
I do sort of wish the idea with the sharks and moat that was proposed for UFC 1 had been done in Japan or something. Maybe a Karate Kid 2 style arena.
With the complete lack of cross styles in UFC 1-5 or so, I'm not sure weight classes wouldn't be a detriment. The little guy winning tournaments his family were helping book was sort of the hook that got the Gracies involved. Unless they recruited better and got Bas, Shamrock, Severn, Frye, etc all in earlier to carry the shows.
I do enjoy the carney gimmicks and records they give the guys in the early shows. Tank had a college degree IIRC and a solid NCAA record IIRC, but none of that was going to sell like the PIIITTTT FIGHTAAAAAAAAAA!!! Shit, in a non tourney format, they could have fed Tank tomato cans to blast for years and get him over as a Butterbean like folk hero. A Kimbo Slice before Kimbo Slice was a thing.