Mr Natural wrote: But the real relevance is that taste of the locals can affect what is available to foreigners, at least to some extent in the big picture of things.
True, absolutely. And yes, you're right, it's worth knowing.
What is annoying is the disdain some posters (not just on HA) have because some crusty expat dared to form a family with an ISAAN girl, fercryinoutloud, or godforbid a Filipina who is actually a pureblooded Filipina. My annoyance particularly includes someone trying to get me to prefer pasty-complexioned Asians to the darker-skinned, regardless of whether the aforesaid pasty-faces have a sexy body or not.
It's like a weird reflection of the USSA:
"I don't WANT a used-up late twenties AmeriSlut."
"BUT", the reply comes, "You couldn't actually GET her, so nyaa nyaa nyaaa."
A technically-correct factoid, but deceptive, because it seeks to shift my focus away from getting what I want, to HOW UTTERLY, HOPELESSLY HOPELESS IT ALL IS.
f**k that.
Or else to shift my focus to how I need to spend YEARS building a social circle and getting accepted, SO THAT I can date someone -- someone of the appropriate skin color and entitlement level -- SOMEDAY.
f**k that too.
"Well actually, she's not REALLY my daughter. But she does like to call me Daddy... at certain moments..."