"Grim Reality!"

[Aldous]

he is the unknown and feared outsider

There is a simpler explanation for this: it's a major theme of "Gladiator".

I agree it's an interesting time in Superman's evolution, but Superman in his early stage was highly derivative and Jerry took many of these ideas directly from other sources, so I don't read too much into them (ie. I don't try to deeply analyse why Superman is like this at this stage).

[Permanus]

I don't try to deeply analyse why Superman is like this at this stage

Yes, I quite agree with you there; at the time, they were still feeling their way around and weren't really bothered about what some middle-aged guys would be thinking of as "canonical" sixty or seventy years down the line.

Still, it is interesting that Superman doesn't immediately appear as a beacon of hope in the early adventures. In fact, he is rather often shown as a crowd-dispersing kind of fellow, at least when he shows up at lynchings and car-shaking occasions. People are rather often shown running away from him, but they're usually guilty of something; there's not really much depiction of him interacting with innocent bystanders.