[Spoiler] Why is Survivor: China so beloved by everyone?

So when I was a lot younger I religiously watched Survivor.

After Season 11 I never watched the show again, as I just developed different interests. But I randomly caught this current season and got hooked again. When I found out that most seasons were on Amazon Prime, I decided to binge two seasons and looked up popular seasons.

I saw that China was well beloved by Survivor fans (and this own subreddit judging by past posts), for the following reasons: Great cast, great location/production, and a superb final tribal council.

For me, I didn't really care for much of this season at all. Todd was clearly the best and most strategic player from the first episode--but a large part of it, IMO, was that there was not anyone on his level which diminishes his win. He was basically a mastermind behind the scenes but didn't have anyone of equal nature to go up against. The only adversity he went up against is when a plan of his didn't work (aka giving James the idol and not winning the immunity challenge).

I don't view Amanda as a good player because she completely bombed that final tribal council. It was very clear she was underprepared and couldn't debate to the nuance that Todd could. Which brings me to another point, I dunno how on earth this was considered one of the best tribal councils of all time. I feel like people over blow Todd's performance. All he basically had to do was not fuck up, and he hit the talking points he needed. And while I thought Courtney had some good answers, she was unforgivable in that she told Jamie to practically not to vote for her.

As for the cast, it's a very mixed bag. There are very few standouts. Todd was a mastermind, Courtney was hilarious, James was a likeable physical freak, and Denise was a underdog you wanted to root for (even if she was lucky that she flew under the radar/I also know other people might not agree with me on Denise). Beyond that? I thought everyone else was forgettable.

I also thought the tribe switch at the beginning was incredibly lame. Switching the two most powerful players was extremely exploitive. James and Aaron got stuck on the weaker tribe, and Aaron more or less got a raw deal. The season I watched previously, Cook Islands, did it in a brilliant way with the mutiny because that severed alliances that were once thought to be safe. In other words, I would have preferred that or a simple tribal reshuffling.

I feel like I'm just missing something here that other people love about this season. I'm just surprised that out of ALL the seasons in Survivor, that this one ranks so highly.