You are correct. Young singers tend to want the big voice. I think partly this is because
recording is so doctored these days that everyone sounds like a big voice. Young singers also hear the famous going for bigger and bigger voiced roles and think that is the way to success. (They are probably right about that.) At any rate, everyone is pushing for the big, dark sound.
There is one of those groups in my town where singers get together and try out arias for each other. I went to a meeting to see if there was anything of value going on for singers in my studio. I heard five singers gutting their ways through arias and duets, all driving their voices, all singing Verdi above their ages. One young lady told us used to be a dramatic soprano. Now she is a dramatic mezzo. SHE IS NEITHER ONE! She is a garden variety lyric trying to sing too heavily.
All the voices were from one studio. All had the same problems. All were over-singing. All had lots of scuro and very little chiaro, meaning the chest voice was being used incorrectly and
the registration was improperly mixed.
Sad, sad, sad.