[Nerfnow!!] Classic Fantasy vs Modern Fantasy
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In anime it would depend on what kind of demons they're referring to. In Shinto Yokai can be good, bad or indifferent and that word gets translated to demon in English pretty much all the time. So if they're basing the demon race on that concept then there can be nuance.
It gets really muddled when they also use the Catholic version of demons for the aesthetic like in Blue Exorcist, but use Shinto logic for their behavior.
If the setting is unmistakably Japanese then yeah, but if there's a bunch of Tolkeinian fantasy races running around and the dragons are western in style, I'm going to assume they intended on a western version of demon. Like in 'jobless reincarnation' (don't feel like looking up what the japanese title is), everything about the world is western, and the one Japanese girl who got portaled in sticks out like a sore thumb, but there's a whole continent of 'demons' that are indistinguishable anime characters... or furries.
They (like most artists) tend to copy aesthetic without deeper meaning, and it flies right past people that deify art.
Evangelion is often praised by midwits for it's religious imagery that the original creators admitted was only done "because it looks cool".
We even have a literal term for it, westaboo, to describe the constant fact of the Japs being obsessed with Western aesthetics and media without a hint of understanding of it. Kojima is famously one.
From dudes wearing cowboy hats for no fucking reason, to them constantly using Gnostic nonsense, its no deeper than a bunch of dweebs.
Kojima has a better understanding of western things than most of them. While MGS does have some Japanese sensibilities and moralisms, it very much addresses the US military industrial complex and intelligence agencies' criminal behaviors. It's not Deus Ex, but sometimes it's clever. Whereas whatshisname with evangelion is just a dweeb.
That's what I said in the last half, a lot of the time they use classic demon aesthetic, but use the Shinto logic for their behavior, regardless of setting.
Those shows are set outside of Japan, but, in most of them, everyone acts like they're Japanese anyway.
Which is the religion with the big titty demon girlfriend who loves you?
Probably some Shinto sect
even in western stuff, I'd say there's nuance. If there's a story, for instance, that uses the trope of the "misunderstood demons" to push DEI bullshit, yeah, i'd say steer clear. (99% percent of the time, that's what's going on today)
But if it's just somebody trying to tell an interesting story, then it might be okay.
Generally speaking, it depends on the thrust of the story in question; is this person trying to push an agenda, or are they trying to tell an interesting (if controversial) story?