@Shinyies It's not about how the leads are together, but how the dynamics reads to me like what is between a man and a woman, which you do see in Romance works with female protagonist and male lead. Some things are just not what men who grew up as men think or do or learn, at least in my view. I'll pick it up again if it's convenient.

edit: Also, BL fans are definitely mostly women. It's like how women write and read yaoi, while gay guys write and read bara. Over the last decade, in the manga world at least, yaoi has changed its style to become more and more appealing to gay audiences, but its root doesn't change. I would assume today's yaoi have more gay readers than the past, but I don't think they are the majority. Besides the shift in style, I believe the same could be said about danmei, and other BLs in other languages. It's why 90% of the stories' MC is the bottom and not the top, and so far I have never seen a side or a vers in written BL.