I know there's erring on the side of caution and it can make you sound like Obi Wan, saying: 'patience, young one!' , but some people do seem to only have taken notice of the kid literally since his debut and not followed this thread at all prior to it.
Kobbie has been treated and regarded as the Golden Child long before this debut, and if you follow the thread's timeline, one bunch of people telling the other to either lower or measure their expectations is in about its 10th iteration by now.
It's clear this is a level of talent it'd be folly to put an arbitrary cap on; talent says one thing, how things actually unfold is another story entirely that mightn't have anything to do with ability. It seems like those telling others to hold their horses conflate these two things more than those recognising the pure aspects of talent for what it is.
You shouldn't need many games to detect the talent beaming back at you, so calling what you see is in no way jumping the gun. If a player turns on a sixpence, he turns on a sixpence; that's an immediately obvious, intrinsic skill for said player. If the player turns and twists to an elite level comparable to some of the greats, that's literally what he does. It can be called and there's nothing prematurely stated in it being identifiable and obvious. A recent example would be people almost instantaneously observing that Greenwood's shooting technique and strike manipulation was so elite as to be compared to Van Persie's. You didn't need a gazillion games to see that, and it doesn't suddenly mean those stating it were declaring he was on Van Persie's level as a player, rather than that particular attribute being noted as through the roof. An even easier one would be Darron Gibson's freakish strike power, which was up there with Charlton in the club's history for how hard and clean he could strike a ball. Nobody would be saying that Gibson was Charlton for being able to strike a ball like him.
What should be clear is you can't fluke yourself into a debut/performance like that. It is an abnormal level of ability and know-how, and it shouldn't take more than that debut to see that those attributes are absent in our entire squad outside of Mainoo. That's not hyping him up, that's just a statement of fact. It's not an absurdity to comment on and if any of you saw MotD2 (and various shows/podcasts were at it too - even Lee Dixon was full of praise), you'd see a panel of ex-pros, who knew little of Mainoo pre-debut saying what they were seeing is special. It's not outlining his career or getting away with hyperbole, it's simply calling what you see, which is why literally no other midfielder we have has had that kind of praise this season for technical acumen and know-how.
The cautionary tale with this level of talent is along the lines of over-reliance, overplaying and overexposure, not in declarations about the talent itself. The real worry outside of them being corrupted off the pitch is being depended upon at far too young an age - you only have to look at what Barca have ruined in the last couple of years with overplaying in: Pedri (in particular) and Ansu Fati to know that the aforementioned talent can be mismanaged to the point of damaging it, and with our dire midfield, suddenly having exactly the profile of player we've needed in there all season, it might be tempting to play him repeatedly, like his talent warrants.
It's just tricky: there's been so many true teenage prodigies who were wrecked and a shadow of themselves by 30 that it's nothing to be ignored. Does it run 1:1 with just the luck of the draw? For every Cesc, Owen and Rooney is there a Milner, Barry and Giggs (to a lesser extent as his hamstrings possibly lowered his career load organically)? I think this is a theme in itself, but nothing to do with talent.
There also seems to be a secondary notion since his debut that he shouldn't be built up because the moment he has a bad game or run of form, he'll be teared into. That seems like an asinine line of thought. Call a spade a spade and use objective reasoning along with that.
The markers for talent are not the markers for a stellar career, but what that talent does do is give a clear line to what a player is capable of and where he could reach if the stars align health wise and they don't go off the rails mentally or away from the pitch. By talent alone, Kobbie is earmarked for something different from the norm in terms of youngsters who we're just happy to see make it. In a really drab season with a lot of poor football played to date, it's no wonder people are doubly excited to see the kid play and be enthused by what they see - even if this season tanks, but he takes his game from prodigious debutant to fully-fledged £100m+ asset, it'll now be a good a season because it'll have set us up better for subsequent seasons and also poured some hope and faith back into the club.