Batman of the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s was never dark. Kids of that era (including me) would never buy comic books like that. The dark era of Batman came much later to reflect the degeneration of modern society into a cesspool of hate and violence.
I preferred Batman over Superman--I thought he was more of a he-man. Unlike Superman, Batman had no love life and never showed emotion.
Batman may have lacked Superman's super powers, but the Man of Steel owed his life to him. In 1958, I was at a barber shop where I saw a comic book featuring a story in which Superman was in mortal peril--bad guys in a space ship had sprayed him with a green goo that was fatal to him, but to no one else. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to finish the story. About half a century later, I found out how Superman got out of that scrape--Batman came to the rescue!
However, I quickly lost interest in Batman after he swapped his big and powerful Batmobile for a wimpy compact. A few years later, I was told by a comic book fan that Batman went liberal--he was fighting "social injustice' in lieu of crime. I never found out if that was true, but given the media's bias, I wouldn't be surprised if it was.