A couple of things:
You don't have to like everything the boys put out.
You don't have to like an album or an era of their music.
You can listen to their old stuff and let the new stuff flow by. They will not stop putting new music out. They will at their core, be Ateez, always.
What you shouldn't do is be a prick about your dislikes. You shouldn't hate on the boys for the music they choose to make, nor the fans that like and enjoy what the boys put out.
There is an old saying in fandom, for fanfics specifically: If you don't like, don't read.
That can flow over to music too. We live in an age where we can curate our fandom experiences. Which is very easy to do in music spaces where we can make and create playlists catered to what we like listening too.
If you don't like GH5 or any GH album, no one is forcing you to listen to it. No one is making you put it on your playlist. You can DNF a song if you don't vibe with it, like you can DNF a novel or a fanfic. And move on.
You are the only one responsible for your fandom space and experiences.
Ateez's job is to make music. That's what they are doing. They are men who work in the music industry. They have varying likes and music tastes and they bring those into the music that they create. They work hard for what they do. They sing, dance, perform for a camera 90% of the time. They have solo schedules. They are people. But the one thing they love the most if making music and performing it on stage.
They are doing a job they love with the people they love and a company what what I can see, comparing to others out there, give them so much freedom to explore the things that they want.
I will say I honestly love the Golden Hour era because it is so diverse. It's interoduced me to different genres of music that I wouldn't listen to. Is it through a Kpop lense? Yes, but it's a good, soft introduction into different flaours of music I usually wouldn't touch. Knowing now it's samples of the members individual tastes? I love it even more.
I wouldn't want Ateez to put out things that sound the same as what they have done before, it will get repetitive fast. I'd stick to regular pop if I wanted that (well, except Ed Sheeran, that man plays with genres all the time <3)
I will tack on this at the end, which I shared with my pocket friends:
I have 2 things to put in about Jongho and lines since I have seen this pop up (which is really wild).
Our boy carried Ateez at the beginning of their career and I'm actually happy he has less strain on his voice. Gives him more time to dance..no? And this leads to this:
It shows the other members improvements vocally if he isn't relied on as much to do the bulk of the hard stuff (Woo said he wants to improve to help Jongho).
Like Kudos to Ateez as a whole for improving vocally over the years.