any time you go to Chinese, take out, or Thai food, wherever, in order the tofu, it’s been cubed and deep fried

That is the American way. You absolutely will not find the majority of tofu deep fried in China

Cheap tofu is mostly flavorless. Good tofu is not

Before living in Japan, I’d have shared your views here. Turns out I was just eating low quality tofu, in a culture that has little experience cooking tofu