My last kimchi experiment tasted like feet because I forgot it in the back of the fridge for a month. Pretty sure I'm the one hiding questionable stuff with fermentation, not the chefs.
Forgotten kimchi turning funky seems pretty normal for a home experiment though... feels like a stretch to blame chefs for hiding cheap stuff like @felix_wilson86 mentioned. Fermentation is just tricky and things go weird sometimes, it doesn’t have to be some big conspiracy. My cousin’s sauerkraut once smelled like a gym locker, but it was just his own bad timing. Kinda think we’re overcomplicating a simple fridge mistake.