I think this is one of the main reasons why traditionel wuxia will never reach the state of mainstream, because in the first place it is real hard for foreigners, like me, to get all the ambitions...but everybody has the ability to learn. I started watching those movies in the 90's when HK Cinema became kind of popular, especially with the wuxia genre. I didn't get all of the plots, but all that over-the-top entertainment was so different and fascinating that the meaning of every act didn't really matter
Nowadays me and my girlfriend a both into this a lot. I'm more in reading and watching movies concerning the genre and my girl's into TVB and also some ATV stuff. We both like it, because it's entertaining, poetic, sometimes scratching real-life issues in a more ideal way and you've got a lot of Action. Another thing what it makes so appealing to me, is the extremity of emotions which get spread. Wuxia is a medium that keeps your heart beat raising, as long as you can let yourself go and feel the vibe...
btw wuxia has compared to the usual superhero outputs something like a teaching ambition, not in any special subjects, but the fact that nobody in jianghu is born with superpower! You have to learn and practise over and over again to rise to supreme power or something similar just like in real life imho...
so in the end I don't think wuxia is dorky. It's all over the top with everything it has to say, but still keeps social and human issues in its context alive and also initiates the thinking about oneself and the surrounding he/she is part of