they just sound like they are

That's all that really matters eh? To be honest if I was convinced Chinese people loved Chinese pop passionately, then I'd begrudgingly accept it, but I just know it's 98% about the handsome or beautiful singer's image, the music just an inconvenient byproduct nobody is actually listening to.

Same can be said for western pop, just far less extreme. But like, if I listen to any top charts of the west these days, it's all that really annoying latin hiphop... and they sound even more copy-pasted than the above Chinese!