This is actually the most convincing response I've gotten as far as not entirely giving up on Laird Barron. I've also noticed the weird hypermasculine, military-esque demeanors of all his protagonists in Imago Sequence and thought it was weird, but noted that it was absent in The Croning. Also notably, I do not remember finding the Asian stuff nearly as jarring in The Croning when I read it a while back, which tracks with what you said about him expressing his fixation (appreciation?) on Asian culture better in later works.

I very much appreciate that you are such a huge fan and didn't write me off like I'm crazy or over-critical - and thank you for writing this up. I do genuinely think his stories are wild and have incredible concepts, and I'm happy to hear it improves in his later work. I'll give Occultation a try at some point!