On CA, South Korean is democratic country they can do whatever they want to bring in $$$ (it's fictional anyway) as long as it's legal in their country. For this drama, I would say they didn't do anything wrong. They put a caption in the beginning that it's a made up story no country in the drama existed in history or book. I just watch whatever entertains me and don't care about other stuffs. China production teams need to start making drama shorter and better so people will start watching their dramas too. I must say Hong Kong used to make a lot of great materials. SK emulates HK's formular in the late 80 to mid 90 in term of entertainment contents.
You said you don't need approval from the west ( understandable) but why complain when other is hungry for approval?
K production teams have more creative power that why the can make better products and it's being loved. C production teams need to do better in creating contents and to be acknowledged by non-asian country viewers.
But a lot of western viewers only see whatever they watch and won't research the history or what not cuz the drama was just made up although I can agree that the hong sisters did watch a lot of Chinese dramas.
Jaewook is the only one left without any casting news announced, pretty sure he is taking his time choosing.
My girl GYJ doesn't one either. Hopefully directors cast her more often. I know that she's been busy filming Hunt, Moving, and now AoS s2 consecutively.
I also saw some Japanese dislike of Squid Game cuz they said the production team plagiarize/copy their stuffs. The thing about Korean production is that they take inspiration and make it better and everyone enjoyed it and then everyone claiming it's theirs etc. I don't know about other stuffs I am just referring to films and dramas.
The CGI is really good for AoS - It's as good as CGI in Chinese's dramas. Their costumes look nothing alike I see nothing similar. I guess I don't know enough about Chinese stuffs.
You said you don't need approval from the west ( understandable) but why complain when other is hungry for approval?