In Defense of Atem

I'm going to confess something: I fucking hate that Takahashi ended YGO with Yugi beating Atem in a final duel and everyone saying, “Oh! Yugi is the true King of Games. Go to the afterlife, Atem. We don't need you anymore”. I know the characters didn't say that, but that's how it felt to me: that Atem did the lion's share of the dueling and protected Yugi and the others from harm, but it's Yugi who gets all the recognition and love, not only from everyone he knows, but also the fandom. 

Atem and Yugi could have tied and that still would have shown Yugi’s growth as a duelist, without disrespecting Atem. In Rurouni Kenshin, Yahiko and Kenshin dueled for Yahiko’s coming of age. Yahiko lost, but still landed a good blow on Kenshin, causing Kenshin to pass the Sakabatou to him. This allowed Yahiko to be strong without disrespecting Kenshin. Couldn't they achieve the same means by having Yugi and Atem duel each other to a tie (if that's possible in DM)? Even if Yugi lost, if it was a very close loss, it would still show that he was good enough to duel Atem on nearly equal terms. 

Day after day, I see posts, fanart and fanfiction that lionize Yugi and either don't mention Atem at all, shunt him to the side, or even worse, portray him as an idiot, a fool, a weakling, or a wanton tyrant, who stole Yugi's opportunities and held him back from his true potential. 

Atem never held Yugi back from anything. He protected Yugi until Yugi was strong enough to stand on his own two feet.