It’s partly because the smutty stuff holds shock value, I’m afraid. That’s also why the turnover rate is arguably higher than before - the masses chase a quick kick and just as quickly move on.
I don’t mean to beat down on that behaviour, it’s just a pattern bred by this era. There’s still plenty of people who value a good story, it just happens to get buried under works produced for cheap clicks.
A little aggressive on the message but yeah manhwa definitely has garnered a lot of popularity. Im one of those people, I love Manhwas but I also think that has to do with that not a lot of mangas are being advertised now.
"Back in my days" love stage and super lovers was to rave about in the BL Manga community looool...yeah most old mangas have very concerning tropes when looked back on. So much slipped past people (r*pe, assault, ped*phelia, child like bodies). Which sadly most are still out there but the genre has now broaden outside of those.
I wrote a reply/topic (I forgot) complaining about this then dozens of strangers keep attacking me said if I don't like just find another site, like please I've been here since my junior high more than 15years ago and we know that manga release in English is really hard to get back then even with scanlation teams, and now it's still sooooo hard to find English translation manga, and there are still so much hidden gem that not have English version or not being seen/continue BCS now every scanlation teams more focused on manhwa/manhua so why I can't complain? I know I'm also enjoying some of those manhwa/manhua but really, I want more of manga too in here

Man y'all are so horny
I swear every month the featured Manga becomes more and more smut. I miss the days where the featured manga list was real mangas and not straight up p*rn.