I don't love Korea, so my answer won't be about that, but I'll have a go at why some people do... I think there's generally two categories of people on this subreddit who love Korea. First, there's the young people who arrive here after Uni and teach English. They're attracted to all sorts of different things. Some like the party scene, others like the hipsterism of being in a big city (and being an exotic), some like the easy travel to new places every weekend or holiday. What unites them is their attitude that Korea is just a temporary spot to have some fun while they figure things out. They can save some money, or they can blow more money on booze/travel than they could at home. The second group are more or less orientalists. They tend to be a bit older, and they may or may not be English teachers. Some have families, some are married to Koreans, but they get off on the fact that Korea isn't home. It's challenging, it's unique, it's kind of a feather in their cap to say they're making it in a huge city that's very different from their homes. They don't necessarily care for partying or traveling, they're making a home here, and why here? Because for whatever personal reason they want to contrast where they live with where they grew up.

Now.. that's just my take, and certainly not everyone falls into those categories. Some people are just positive thinkers. You're here temporarily, but I've read/heard about/talked to people who came here because they were transferred for a permanent position. They couldn't choose, so they make the best of it, and they complain quietly and privately but otherwise they just try to make it work.

You're not alone about the food. Korean food is nearly identical where ever you go. "Jeonju has the best food!" No. Jeonju has the exact same food as every other city with a few minor tweaks that could easily be done in Seoul or Busan. "This is the best restaurant for oxtail soup!" No. It's exactly the same as every other oxtail soup I've ever had with a few minor tweaks that barely change the dish.

Restaurants tend to serve one dish. Do the chefs here all tend to suffer from the same obsessive compulsive like disorder? One restaurant could easily serve half a dozen separate dishes and not break a sweat. Even the fusion-y type restaurants I've been to tend to just cop out and not make it very different. No michelin stars in the whole country. One fancy restaurant at a hotel, other than that fine dining is pretty much absent. Somebody will point out their favourite expat run French or Italian restaurant - What about here?! But generally those use only local ingredients to recreate Korean-style foreign food that tastes like garbage because they're neither the original dish, nor a well-crafted local recreation. They are pretty much all kimchi rice with a few foreign ingredients.

This is a country where pacific salmon is unheard of. They eat "Alaska Salmon" in cans, that's actually grown in tubs in Thailand. Beef is either imported cuts that westerners won't eat, or wagyu which is useless for cooking about 80% of the dishes eaten in the west.

and bread? Don't even get me started. Apart from a few token shops, the only bread is in Itaewon and it's served by bakeries that open AFTER NOON. A bakery that opens in the afternoon? What kind of lazy shit is that? Bakeries should be open before me, and they should have sold all their cinnamon buns by the time I drag my lazy ass there at 9am. This is the way. But seriously, without bread and beef you can't say that there is western cuisine in this country at all.

So many other deficiencies... cake, garbage, coffee, disgusting, apples, mealy... Although, to be fair, some of the other fruit is better here than at home.

Anyway. That's my rant.