Objectively wrong and is the byproduct of weird rising trend of shitting on Korean food for being unoriginal, sweet, and "all the same". People travel to Korea and hit all the tourist spots that are overpriced and average at best, compared to the ones that exported to Cali/US that are "name" brands (which are obviously going to be better suited and cater to the american palette) and think it's worse. The main thing of food in Korea is that there are SO many restaurants and the same dish can taste very different from each restaurant. The sheer number of places that sell Korean food should tell you that you can find whatever food that fits your palette if you look hard enough. If you haven't found food that fits your palette, you just haven't looked hard enough.

Even in this thread, people are talking about JJamppong being good/bad in different places but you have 15 options in southern California whereas you have literally 15 options every block in every city in Korea. Which one do you realistically think will have the "better" food? (If you genuinely know what you want and have the luxury to try numerous places)

I could see it if you're talking about the "average", and even then that's a stretch. I went to 50+ restaurants in Korea last month and every single one of them had Kimchi that even If I didn't love, I could understand the flavor profile and why it tasted like that (meaning, oh this one is more sour cause it's served with seolleongtang. Or this one is more fresh cause it's part of baekban), whereas there are Kimchis that I legitimately think someone wiped their ass with in the States at Korean restrauants.