i have seen so many ppl say this and i think it's very very ridiculous.
1. there were always toxic fans who went overboard in every gen.
2. there are still interactions between men and women in kpop + all the tiktok challenges help with that too.
3. so many idols in 4/5 gen do not care about their image. most of the time it's companies who do. i stan zb1 and they be doing everything, it's mostly their company censoring something when they don't like it.
nothing is boring. though ppl have become much more hateful, probably because tiktok and x is popular now and all ppl do is spread hate there.
i thought once about why don't idols bring back those crazy hairstyles? but when someone tried they got made fun of. if anything the way idols act now is not their fault, but the fans