They're just shonen-adjacent.
Most cultivation stories aren't that far off from your usual OP isekai reincarnation/transfer.
You're not wrong!
I'd go further though and argue it's not just shounen-adjacent, but actually the progenitor of thelat type of progression fantasy entirely. Whether we look at Journey to the West of the 16th century (and DBZs direct inspiration) or something as recent as Condor Heroes (1970), xanxia fantasy and specifically daoist cultivation have literally written the book on pretty much every power system and plotline tht came after it.
Every big name shounen (even if they slap a Spanish coat of paint on it like Bleach) can pretty much have 99% of its powers, enemies and character archetypes traced back to the xanxia boom.
Sorry for the rant but I have strong feelings on how underappreciated xanxia and wuxia are when it comes to being the reason shounen looks the way it does today lol. (Don't get me started on how queer women's oppression in countries outside of the imperial core gave birth to the bountiful range of subtextual and "low-key" expressions of love between women, allowing the genres of Baihe/Yuri to evolve beyond traditional romantic storytelling and being richer than their hetero counterparts as a result)