Nakama, I'd definitely agree with. Some things definitely need TL notes, like changing from Watashi to Ore, or a character using Ore from the get-go. Some, it's legit hard to pick the right meaning at times. Aniki, for example. Aniki can be big bro, it can be "boss", it can do the work of Nakama (certainly a sense of close comradeship)
So I'm not entirely on board with this statement, but I still know what you mean. Nakama is an egregious example, after all, and there are others.
Mostly Unrelated Sidenote: I do TL sometimes, mostly for funsies and to learn the lingo, and it be hard sometimes. So let me vent for a brief moment.
I HATE YOU SO MUCH, KANJI PUNS. I HATE YOU SO DAMN MUCH.
I should've been more specific that I'm OK with words where there are legitmate context issues. My issue is people who "translate" into a sentence like (and obviously I'm exaggerating here) "Boku feel like my kokoro is going doki doki a hundred miles an hour because of that bishoujo/bishonen over there with the deep kuro hair desu"
Those always feel like those height requirement signs on carnival rides. Like "you must be
this much of a weeaboo to properly enjoy the work." sort of gatekeeping.
If something can be translated in a way that maintains sufficient context/meaning or can be substituted for something that has equivalent meaning (like if someone uses an idiom that has an English counterpart and there aren't any visual puns or wordplay happening that needs the original language for them to make sense), it should be done that way. "flavor" from stuff like honorifics is fine. Translatable proper nouns for non-living things are a bit of a toss-up (for example I never minded the english dub of Naruto changing the village names to English because the meaning and imagery evoked by the name were almost more important than the literal name itself. And one of the only significant things lost by not keeping them Japanese was the meaning/intent/value behind Konohamaru's name containing the village name (which is fine because it was barely a plot point of any significance.)
Like there's an old school fansubbing group for TV stuff, TV-Nihon who I know have an awful,
awful rep for how stiff, rigid, clunky, and uncooperative they are in terms of making their stuff understandable. To the extent that there are examples of them leaving things untranslated and then including a translator's note that amounts to "go watch this other, totally unrelated work to understand the context or definition of the thing we refused to translate." Or worse, pulling a "keikaku means plan" and giving a translator's note that could've just been the translation itself.
I didn't really need to go off there. I'm not a translator nor do I speak any Japanese beyond the usual nerdy stuff picked up through anime/manga. But as someone who at least appreciates well-crafted writing it drives me insane that there are shitty translators that will purposely make things clunkier or harder to understand out of some counterproductive belief that janky, untranslated crap that forces the audience to do a bunch of homework is somehow better than making sure you've made something readable and understandable to the average person reading it.