I think we should not judge Fan just yet - he has not proven himself against the top chinese players like Ma Long, Wang Hao, Xu Xin and so. I remember Yan An playing crazily like this in the earlier part of the year - beating ZJK, XX, and was VERY close to beating Ma Long on multiple occasions. Everyone was talking about him being the leader of the U21 CNT. Then a few months later he stopped peaking.
Anyway, what I'm saying is that the reason why everyone thinks Fan is like the wildest and the best in the world right now is because he only had to play against > WR 5 players - to win two titles back-to-back. He might've beaten Zhang but I'm pretty sure along with other ZJK fans too that Zhang only peaks when he wants to (like big competitions etc.) So the craze about Fan being really good at his age is because of perspective - think about this --> had XX, ML, or even Wang Hao decided to play in these two tourneys, they would probably have met Fan in earlier rounds, maybe even in the second or third. And what then? I'm very sure Fan can't beat either three (even WH). So if he were to lose in the early stages, even against the top chinese, I think we would all think of him VERY differently. Just like the WTTC this year- he lost to ZJK in R3. ZJK may have went on to win the title, but we all still think of Fan's loss as any other loss in the earlier rounds. So - it's all about perspective.
Now I'm not denying Fan is any good. I think he belongs in the top 5. Like I said he earlier he could beat A LOT of >WR 5 players, and I'm sure he can beat them again any other time. So now I'm gonna try to talk about why Fan's that good (for his age or whatever; top 5 in the world is vERY good anyway)
I think this has been mentioned earlier - culture. Not just in TT, or sports, but even in MANY other aspects - Chinese are very, very hardworking. AND VERY COMPETITIVE, Like a few of you said earlier, once you start slacking you're off the team. Compared to the Europeans, that's very harsh. I think if you were to take someone of Timo's level (or Timo himself), and have him be on the CNT, they'll probably end up like Ma Lin or Wang Liqin. They still have the skills and of course a lot of experience but on the CNT they aren't that important anymore. Vice versa, if you were to take them out of China and have them play for other teams, they might even be the best from where they represent.
And also the Chinese always have each other to practise against, and since they're level is the best, as long as they keep playing with each other they'll always keep improving. I think if you want to be good at a sport you always have to keep playing with someone on a higher level than you. But that's just not possible for the non-Chinese. So the Chinese are almost indestructible, and will be so for decades to come.
Back to Fan. I strongly agree with you guys to that with Fan playing at his level, at this age, the years of TT to come will definitely be dull. Unless of course you enjoy seeing a young one upsetting the older players (although they wouldn't be called upsets anymore). Imagine if he was playing like this last year - when he was still U15. Even crazier. I understand your pain as I feel it too. Honestly, I can't wait to see FZD against Ma Long and Xu Xin, or maybe even ZJK at this top to see how he performs. Also I can't wait for the December rankings. Nevertheless Fan has proven convincingly that he is worthy of being in the top 5 of the world. And winning 2 Men's world titles back-to-back at only 16 while having to beat more experienced top 10 players of the world is just AMAZING. Dull, but amazing.