Too much or just right? All a matter of taste (subject, light and focus at the scene, colors and other tweaks in pp):

Three Amigas, on Flickr.

Not a "big boy" camera:
Olympus E-M10MarkII
OLYMPUS M.Zuiko lens, 75-300mm F4.8-6.7 II

While sitting at a computer is obviously not everyone's idea of a good time, editing raw files can be rewarding and fun, and offers more options for personalized results than a camera "style" setting does.

From what I have read from time to time in this forum, many, perhaps most, do not even try to adjust their cameras, preferring to post process - and why not - it's a most reasonable and interesting pass-time. Even so, most decent cameras have useful adjustment parameters, such as WB, Saturation, Vivid, RBG, BW, Sharpness, HDR, and more. Of course, if the menu structure is difficult to understand and non-intuitive, I can see why so many photographers never get to know their cameras, beyond the exposure triangle.
Successful SOOC is about knowing your camera and using all it's facilities. The RAW pundits have no choice but to rely on PP to sort out any failings. They will also parrot each other to insist that RAW is the only way, which, of course, rules out the need to ever get to know their cameras.

Del, your comments reminded me I had intended to leave this topic alone after being the first respondent yesterday. Oh well, in for a ten-pence, in for a £ 🤭

Most of us just go about our hobby in the ways that we enjoy most, and don't care whether you shoot in raw or jpg. It's the results that matter.

When viewing other people's photos, do we linger more than a nano-second on a posted photo? Do we wish we'd shot it? Would we like it on our wall? Are we inspired to try similar technique, light, subject? Do we examine the editing, if applicable, for inspiration/questions to ask in order to learn?

Carry on, laddies and ladies!

In reality, the images you're viewing are processed doing things on a computer that you cannot do within the camera alone, such as carefully adjusting the white balance, adding saturation overall or to specific colors, and 'moving' the black and white points that serve to deepen the richness of the colors and making the whites whiter. This makes the image seen sharper via contrast, as well as using sharpen techniques in the software.

Some things you can do to your JPEGs from an EOS camera (any camera) are:

1. Go into the picture style definition for Standard (pages 135, 95 of your T5i manual)

2. Update Standard for:

Sharpness = 4 (increase by +1 from the default)
Contrast = +1 (increase to the right of 0)
Saturation = +1 (increase to the right of 0)

3. Then, only shoot in 'Standard'.

4. For the P, Av, Tv modes, use +0.7 EC if you perform some editing to your JPEGs before sharing. Use +0.3 EC if you use the files directly from the camera.

5. If not using already, also review these best practices for sharply focused images: How to obtain sharp images in digital photography

When it comes to editing, the current aesthetic is less is more. In reality, it's maybe not so much less work, rather, less obvious work in the result. Shoot for maybe a week at the settings above. Try another week with the sharpness at 5 and saturation at +2 from default. See if you like the results, can detect a difference in the subtle changes.

Your EOS T5i is a superb camera, but it does depend on the lenses you use and your shooting / processing technique. The changes above are things that can all be done in the camera. You can do these things 'free' even before moving onto processing on a computer.

You use the word "vivid" more than once, so taking that as a reference, the difference in SOOC vividness between your camera and more expensive ones is not pronounced. Cameras that can be described as having better IQ do produce better images but the differences are usually subtle. The vivid differences that you are seeing are due to post processing.

The three main factors that add vividness in PP are contrast, saturation and sharpness. A necessary skill is being able to discern when too much is too much, because those three factors are also the quickest way to an overcooked look. Be willing to experiment and be willing to push the PP, but keep yourself on a tight rein, and before you know it you'll be delighting yourself with dazzling PP'd photos.