hmmm... I do feel like it would also be important to point out that while conflict IS mostly necessary,(otherwise you can't have a conclusion!) it does not have to be interpersonal. Conflicts can also be with the universe or with yourself. As such, the fight does not have to be between the two challengers and they CAN 'just interact' nicely while making an engaging story.
Conflict with the universe could be, for a bad example, the two characters dream of opening a bakery. The conflicts would arise from the real -or wacky- hurdles in the way to that baked dream. Opening and managing a bakery is challenging, yo! You need starting money, baking talents, organization, location, promotioning, ect. It's about fighting against the plot, instead of the people, wrestling the events to have them go your way. In romantic stuff, it's finding love, or learning to know someone. In the action realm, it could a disaster movie or a survival thing, or maybe a treasure hunt.
An internal conflict could be that one of the characters wants to beat
Super Hexagon (probably the best retelling of Beowulf) and the other is coaching them. Or they're trying to make a comic (we all know how hard THAT is) Or maybe the conflict is with the FEELS and talking about stuff is actually like PUNCHING THE FEELS IN THEIR FEELFACE?(nonliterally) It's about overcoming your own limitations, or at least trying. In action, that would be that anime moment where the character trains to become stronger and gets a new power, or even fighting that mirror superman that's a manifestation of his repressed agressivity or whatevs (literally punching the feelface).
Of course, they in no way exclude the possibility of interpersonal conflicts within, good stories often have a bit of everything, but people against each other ain't all of it either.
In this sense, I also don't think that 'Setup, Conflict, Resolution' and 'Theme, Message, Takeaway' are separate styles of writing at all, but both inherently present in any story. What you describe as 'literary plot' also needs the basic story structure to work (a setup to the conversation, a goal/conflict to drive it forward, preferably a satisfying conclusion that rounds it up/achieves something) but the conflict might not be interpersonal, and even punch comics have themes and messages, though simplistic they might sometimes be. (something like; Justice, awesome punches, punching for justice! still has it all, but of course there are also awesome punch comics with deeper meanings)
99 Problems and a Cat
Croi Desai vs. HR99
@ 12:30 AM Apr 23rd