I can very much tell the difference between good and bad coffee. Adding lots of additives was popularised by starbucks because the initial starbucks model was to use cheaper, lower quality coffee to be able to mass produce it. It hid the imperfections. The model has changed somewhat since then.

When you do that to good coffee, it also masks it. You can most certainly have good coffee and bad coffee with those things, but it brings them faaaaaaaar closer together. To the point where a person is addicted to sugary drinks, rather than coffee, like many will claim. I see it all the time. They talk about great coffee, so I offer them multitudes of different methods, styles and flavours, and after that, it turns out they really didn't know what they were talking about. They just like the sugary stuff. Which is totally allowed, as I said, I don't have to drink it, they do.

But it's a case of beginner's syndrome, a person learns one or two things about it, and then they think they honestly know how coffee should and shouldn't go, when they are confusing their taste with good quality.

That's all. Have a nice day.