>>726481
you're looking at it all wrong
korean culture is structured along confucian lines, with greater weight placed on older generations. which is kind of sensible IMO because the first thing you learn as you grow up is how the younger version of you is an idiot and if there's on thing that makes one opinion more valuable than another, it's experience
korean society (heavily influenced by older generations, remember) couldn't give a fuck about kpop because it's aimed at younger generations, let them have their fun.
however they do have strong understanding of the meta-situation around public figures, who rely on public goodwill, and thus are influential. they're expected to be good, responsible people, because if you're corrupt then that's associated with everything around you, it taints those you work with, those who sponsor/employ you, and so on.
look at yoo jae-suk, the zenith of korean celebrities, who carefully remains humble and regularly uses earnings from his career to make charitable donations. compare him with his former 'rival' (for want of a better word) kang ho-dong, who once shared that status but was embroiled in a tax evasion scheme (iirc) and took a three-year break from his career to show contrition - this showed that he understood his position, that his success & fortune ultimately came from public goodwill, and that he'd abused this trust and would take the hit.
now compare them with shin jung-hwan, another )formerly) huge celebrity. i think he was originally caught gambling a long time ago, and took the shortest career break of any celebrity (three months) which shows no contrition at all, but he was so famous it was overlooked. then he gets caught again, skips the country and tells lies about what he did; twelve years later he's still a persona non grata.
i hope you can see how the two above factors will apply to idols. korean society in general wouldn't care about them, but since they're incredibly influential to younger generations, idols are expected to set a good example.
that's literally the definition of an 'idol', it's somebody you look up to.
nobody is going to pretend every person is perfect during their formative years, that would be stupid. but older generations want what's best for younger generations, they're their children after all, and they don't want those with negative behaviours influencing the young.
tl;dr stop skipping over things people put time and effort into writing, you dick