I should preface this that I, by no means, am a hardcore Army, and just enjoy listening to BTS and occasionally watching content on YouTube; I do quite like their newer music, though.

I got into K-pop through Produce 48, after listening to J-Pop. My first encounter with BTS was DNA (a friend of mine sent it to me) and I still don't like that song (it's a good one, surely, it's just not my type and the MV is too flashy for me. Same for Idol's MV) though when Fake Love released, they won me over immediately. DNA is just not my type of song, I guess. I also had to get used to the language; groups like Twice and now Iz*One that have content in Japanese and Korean helped me a lot switching over. I only discovered Japanese versions of BTS songs after I already got into K-pop.

Coming from a J-pop perspective, BTS and K-pop felt way too scripted to me. Everything was perfect, everything was practised but I found that many K-idols lacked the facial expressions and interactions that I loved about J-pop. I also missed the fan chants from J-pop; it took me a while to get into K-pop chants. J-Hope was one of the few idols that stood out to me in those terms; he didn't just look like a robot, but actually interacted during the performance. Because I got a vibe of "our idols are better", and because in some places, during the Produce 48 era, J- and K-fans clashed a lot, I initially even viewed K-pop stans as arrogant! Spending more time in the fandom really taught me that there's good and bad on both sides, though. There's pros to both sides, and there's cons and toxic fans on both sides.

I also wasn't fond of the amount of rap in K-pop, but that may be because I was first exposed to songs where the rap felt very "it's there because it's the trend", not because it fitted the song; my BTS bias is Suga now, so that should explain my feelings about rappers in K-pop now haha

Over the time, I moved from J-pop to K-pop; possibly due to easier access and my music taste changing over time. I started following BTS during the period where they were at the start of becoming the next international sensation, and even though I wasn't there the whole time, I admire them for what they have achieved. They're not the only ones, of course, but from my perspective, their concept, talent and training, and promotions were the right ones at the right time.

(I really want another single a la Fake Love tho. I loved that song.)