luckz

He assembles a few in front of her, to which she doesn't react at all.
And later on, she ceremonially receives the one she wanted the most.
Then it's all never heard of again.

Unfortunately, before those episodes they have near-zero coupled-up interactions with each other. 65% of the show they spend living unconnected lives in the same house, then suddenly they're hand-holding all over the place like they were freshly assembled twins joined at the waist.

Yu "failed" all the times he could have committed to her. That second lead pairing was never going to work out, and that's about the only good thing I saw in this show.

You can't even tell if the guy in the restaurant was a) an aspiring serial killer, b1) a spy sent by the ML to keep the FL safe or b2) rather test if she is into other guys now, or c) the ML in disguise who then throws a smoke bomb and reappears in his true form on the other side of the room.
(Once the ML appears, the other guy isn't part of the material plane anymore.)

I actually thought the second lead couple trajectory made a lot more sense than the WTF that the main leads were.

I was about to give the show a 4/10 or 4.5/10 because of how much of an uncalled-for villain the mother was. ^_^

I'm sure it has a lot to do with culture, gender, age, etc.

He was basically zero-expressions background scenery in GGS1...

If you have spare lifetime, I would say watch GGS1 first, otherwise you lose a lot of context. But both take *forever* to get through anyway.

Both GGSes have awful kisses ^_^

The actual game is Counter-Strike, but that's violent and not allowed for GGS1, so they came up with some nonsense, and here it's slightly better/worse different stuff. But at least this one makes sense as an 'eSport', while GGS1's made no logical sense whatsoever. Unfortunately though the GGS2 robots are far from a team sport, I wish it was at least 2v2 and not 1v1.

You can watch both GGSes as "main couple all the way" dramas.

I would say watch both, this is sort of an alternate universe version of the story but skips over a lot(!) of events that you are supposed to be familiar with from GGS1.

For an easy example, in GGS1 EP41 from 38:50 to 39:00, 40:09 to 40:20, 40:43 to 41:09: DT and Appledog are very much paired up as a potential future couple.

Like most esports shows, neither uses the actual esport from the novels.
In 'Gank Your Heart', they have their own poorly-animated MOBA game made for the show.
In 'Falling Into Your Smile', they play Onmyoji Arena instead of League of Legends.
In 'Love Scenery'... it's too ridiculous to explain in one sentence.

Go Go Squid! is about Counter-Strike, and since that's violent and not allowed, GGS1 has nonsensical "cybersecurity talents of China improving the Chinese cybersecurity industry!" crap.

(If you want more spoilers about the novels and the differences, read https://kisskh.at/discussions/my-dear/59149-novel-links?pid=1541137&page=1#p1541137 and the post after it.)

"Also the characters DT and Appledog act like total strangers when they share screen time together, not like boyfriend and girlfriend or lovers in GGS1."
In GGS1, it is clearly(!) established that they have a special relationship and that DT adores Appledog above anyone else.

The actual story planned for GGS1 is about Counter-Strike the video game.

The first series has a tiny bit of CS incorporated, hugely wasted potential there because of how nicely they designed a iconic scene from the game, but the cybersecurity competition is absurd trash (makes no sense at all) and the "competition" scenes for it are just bad.
Robot combat is a big improvement because it actually has some competitive validity, but the big flaw is that it's essentially 90% a one versus one competition instead of a five versus five team game.

In both shows people who have no use for athletic abilities train their bodies rigorously.

If you want more spoilers about the novels and the differences, read https://kisskh.at/discussions/my-dear/59149-novel-links?pid=1541137&page=1#p1541137 and the post after it.

For me, When I Fly Towards You is like what you describe. https://kisskh.at/62295-luo-yao-knew-what-he-meant#comment-17036123

If you can make it through the "creepy phase" it sure gets better.

After seeing your "so wrong" comment on Go Go Squid, I wanted to ask if you find the ML here rather creepy/wrong in the earlier episodes?

Keep in mind: It's their first relationship.
Compared to how often lying is a core plot element in dramas, this one is quite tame.

(I agree regarding how long it is and how little happens in all that time.)

Most of the time the actors also start over-acting needlessly in those unnecessary 10 years earlier clips.
(Later episodes also keep repeating those sequences to the point that it's truly frustrating.)