SPARQL results DO have an inherent structure. Even more, this is why projects like Eclipse Lyo can automatically convert SPARQL results directly to Java Objects. So no, SPARQL it is not intended to be used directly but as a product for a library to be converted into objects or rows or graphs or anything the client needs.

On the other hand, GraphQL pushes its complexity (to worry about the "how") into the server's implementation. The complexity is still there. And it's impossible to be automatically browseable.

Semantic Web is only an application of SPARQL, not the only one.