Yes its western countries like the US or the UK that put out the "badside of kpop" articles and it's rooted in racism and xenophobia. RM called out several white journalists for bringing the same narrative to him, explaining WHY they have to work so hard, happy to share ss/links if you're interested.
Yt mothers are able to send their children to sports camps, dance academies, beauty pageants from as little as 2-3 years old with little criticism but when poc parents do it they're labeled as "tiger moms". The same with the idol industry, western artists find themselves in very predatory 360 deals and are fighting to own their masters every day, but because K-pop has a bootcamp training period before debuting it's "the dark side of kpop"
I'm not making excuses for these labels but you can criticise if 1) you also hold the West to the same standards 2) you don't pigeon hole and generalise making it seem like the entire k-industry because of predatory labels/companies that exist everywhere