A theme can still be relevant even if the audience isn't intimately familiar with its workings, especially when the film itself does such a good job of explaining its workings, how it impacts the psychology and philosophy of the characters, the development and make up of the characters, and the setting and plot of the film.
A theme can be relevent to the characters and still not connect with the audience at all, therefore rendering it fairly pointless. I don't really give a shit about how hard you need to work to be magician because I'm not a magician. So the theme doesn't resonate with me on any level at all.
Sometimes the greatest of villains are, in fact, tragic heroes or anti-heroes themselves.
Indeed, but unless they actually operate as the antagonist of the movie then they remain as anti-heroes. Both of these two characters are in fact the protagonists of their movies. They are not villianous in the slightest, they're anti-heroes.
I'd be fine with labelling them as either, personally. Leanord in Memento, is essentially his own antagonist;
If this were the case then he might be able to be moved into teh role of villian protagonist. Maybe. But throughout the film the tragidy of his situation is played up and we as teh audience are made to sympathise with his as a characters. He isn't the movies villian. Not all movies have villians.
Their choice to live this inhumane existence, to shift the burden on those closest to them, and see the results of that burden and willingly persist in their activities can be considered the activities of a villian.
Look, Borden is the most sympathetic and likable person in teh entire fvcking film. He is the protagonist and the object of the audiences sympathy throughout teh movie. He is a flawed 'man' who sacrifices everything for his craft and we as teh audience can sympathise with him and even respect that choice. He has flaws, but he is damn sure not a villain. 😬
And whether or not they're better villains than the Joker they're certainly better characters.
If you've read the last few pages then you know damn well that this isn't the case. They are not 'certainly' better characters at all. All 3 of these are deep, well developed characters (though I would argue that Borden is by far the weakest of the 3).