It’s not just you for noticing it.
It is just you when you assumed “shy”.
You have to remember the cultural differences between Japan and America. Your “shy” is Japanese “stoicism”. In America it’s seen as a weakness sometimes. In Japan, it’s a sign of strength.
Don’t some places in japan hire at least one american to act as the loud mouth to talk crap to their boss because the other employees don’t wanna intrude?
I couldn’t remember if that was a thing or just a joke
One of my favorites has always been “Saga of Tanya the Evil”. It most definitely doesn’t fall into the category of introverted protagonist surrounded by harem babes.
Same goes for “Legend of the Galactic Heroes”, which is an outstanding military/political anime.
There’s actually a ton of anime out there that doesn’t fall into the trope you’re describing. If my memory’s right, the shy guy protagonist is basically the norm for most fantasy isekai ones. Get away from that subgenre and it’s much more varied.
For the sake of listing examples of what I believe to be solid animes with good stories outside of the protagonist theme you’re talking about:
Saga of Tanya the Evil
Legend of the Galactic Heroes - Die Neue These
Kaiju No. 8
Solo Leveling
I’ll Become a Villainess Who Goes Down in History
Tearmoon Empire
The Witch and the Beast
The Royal Tutor
86 Eighty-Six
Mushi-shi
Sacrificial Princess and the King of Beasts
Goblin Slayer
Grimgar, Ashes and Illusions
The Apothecary Diaries
There’s a few different genres in there, female protagonists, settings, etc.
Anime is like any other medium, it has genres. It’s Japan’s equivalent of cartoons… which themselves had themes and subcategories.
If you only chose one genre, sure they’re all (largely) the same. Every Shonen for example has spikey haired, mostly angry and or delinquent, protagonists as the Over Powered MC… that’s just a Shonen.
Same with harem, Isekai, etc. They all follow the same basic plot and cast in the template of their respective genre and audience.
You could over generalize video games, movies, novels, and most media as well. And just like every other form of media, there is actually a lot of diversity.
I would recommend Beastars too buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut that show is weird. Its good weird but it might still weird out new anime watchers too much lol ( unless you’re a furry then you will understand the weirdness )
Suggest Jojo’s Bizarre Adventures, I wanna see their reaction…
Oh that I already did. Jojos is weird but Beastars can get straight up uncomfortable for some newbies to Anime.
The worst thing with Jojos is dead dogs and that Orangutan on the boat.
I would recommend Gleipnir or Dorohedoro. 
OH DANG I FORGOT ABOUT DOROHEDORO THAT SHOW IS GREAT
I don’t even like girls but then Noi shows up and I’m just that guy from game of thrones “is the big woman still here?”
Bleach and Trigun are faves. Dragonball isn’t bad either though it’s rather cheesy.
I read way more manga than watch anime so I was very shocked when I saw that got an anime. Also while not important to some Dorohedoro is written by a woman and it is finished. Jonson is my favorite character, he should not be but he is.
Yeah its pretty old yeah? Like early 2000s?
Sounds like me if they ever make a full Petshop of Horrors anime instead of just those lil ovas.
There are a ton of difference in the genres and subcategories but we mainly get a lot of Shonen here. March Comes in Like A Lion is a seinen and has a different feel or Mieruko chan or any of Junji Ito.
Speaking of Junji Ito. If you watch Uzumaki just watch the first episode. That episode ate all the budget along with that chicks eyeball lol
my hero academia the only one I watch outside older pokemon and yu-gi-oh. but people say thats to american and not considered Anime. I personally dont like Anime or cartoons in gen if its not a game most of the time.
“American” aka “We saw this growing up on saturday mornings” but its still anime
I am a long time Junji Ito fan, live action Tomie and Uzumaki are nuts. I am also a fan of horror but my taste for it has gotten less over the years.
I mean I just respect the guy because he’s like the final boss of anime adaptations lol.
Also he’s just a chill dude that likes cats. That’s rad
Fullmetal Alchemist (Two shows first deviates from book content and not as good 2nd half, Brotherhood sticks to the books with a great second half but the first half is rushed through since they already did it once in the first anime)…
Attack on Titan.
Everything Ghibli.
Hellsing Ultimate.
Fond memories of the original Digimon Adventure.
There is a reason Anime took off, it’s massively varied and outside of tropes tends to follow the creators wishes, which may or may not be off the rails.