i think that’s a genuine cultural misalignment, rivalry in like kids sports or whatever isn’t designed to be hateful like they are in the US and i assume most of the commonwealth has similar brainworms.
you’re supposed to push eachother to do better, not throw eggs or drop a toilet off at the highschool across town.
it’s been a minute but i don’t think vegeta really fits the rivals thing in the first arc at least, he’s just straight up enemy until… i forget how they get from that first fight into the android saga. i know they kinda let him off the hook later but that could just be liberalism.
i always thought he kinda sucked, i think at my school we liked piccolo and gotenks.