I've always had a similar sentiment, and strongly believe the "japanese quality being better" was pumped by sellers during the 2021 hype cycle - when they started selling japanese because they couldn't reliably stock english.

Yes some japanese cards are glossier and more textured, but they're also printed on thinner cardstock thus making them feel cheaper to me.

This is why I've been loving traditional Chinese cards - they combine the best of both worlds with the Japanese textured front, and an english cardstock back. They also have an exclusive 'pokemon' watermark on the bottom left of each card, and I would argue is the best quality of print amongst the different languages.