During the first season, people had to be evacuated when the Dark Zone attacked, and civilians even interacted with the villains in some episodes. However, at some point, people started to fall unconscious, or even disappear until the fighting was over.
By Max Heart, I don't think a single civilian became aware that strange stuff was going on. This even included
Honoka's grandmother, who was magical enough to stand up to Poisony in the first season.
From what I've seen, future series ditched this and civilians are increasingly aware of the existence of Cures.
Is there a reason people started vanishing and falling unconscious during the earlier days of the franchise?