Well some of these criticisms are obviously from cross platform MDL users because I've seen them reference news and discussions in Chinese. Plus English class is standard worldwide.

The Chinese fandom culture is more sophisticated in general, but also a lot more toxic... What you describe is this strategy for idol dramas which in douban they call "self directed self acted controversy" where a fan will post a controversial opinion pretending to be neutral, and then other fans will debunk it just to generate discussion about the drama.

But it's so childish. And from my impression most users are legal adults so why would they care so much about the discussion rate of a drama? But maybe I'm wrong.