At first, the burger was homemade in a small bistro in a small town. Then people started to enjoy the taste and convenience. Then, someone bought the bistro - commercialized it and made a big giant fast-food burger chain in the whole world. The traditionally made burger is no longer the same again. Then the delicious homemade burger becomes what so-called junk food.
The same thing with the romance novel genre these days.
More than ten years ago, reading transmigration novels such as A Step Into the Past by Huang Yi, or Scarlet Heart by Tong Hua is really awesome and engrossing. But then, right now almost 70% of what so-called 'historical fiction' or 'historical romance' or ancient genre, have this transmigration theme. It's too much and for some people (at least for me) and it becomes junk-food that I don't even bother to check anymore.
The CEO romance was awesome in the beginning. But then it becomes too much. People love to buy dreams. A cool handsome, smart, young, rich CEO - is all girls' dream. Just like junk-food, there's a HUGE demand for it. But for some people, this CEO things could be really something that make them throw up - especially if in real life it's almost IMPOSSIBLE to see cool, handsome, smart, young, rich CEO. LOL
Sad to say, but ROMANCE is the trend right now. Whatever genre you write, you have to have romance inside it if you want to attract readers. I write historical fiction, but the FL genre doesn't allow me to have this 'historical genre' and I have to choose 'historical romance''. Isn't that an indicator that the majority readers want to see FL with historical romance and not historical fiction?