i'm not really a westerner so take my opinion with a grain of salt.
bts and blackpink have for sure done a lot to grow the popularity of kpop and it seems like people are somewhat open to kpop as a music genre, but not as a good community.
i think kpop would be accepted more if the fandom didn't have such a bad reputation. westerners criticising kpop would likely not critisise the music but would complain about the toxic stans they see on twitter. which i completely understand. they deserve to be scrutinised.
kpop would also be more popular in the west if it wasn't just bts and blackpink being the most popular there. because most other groups are only popular with kpop stans and korea. and if you were to ask a ordinary westerner if they knew a kpop group, they would either say bts or blackpink. if westerners were exposed more to other groups then kpop would be bigger there. like i said before, westerners don't hate kpop because of the music, they hate it because of the toxic stans.
bts have done a lot for kpop though, but not enough to gain the west's undivided love and attention. yet....