We have fruit trees in our garden, and truly fresh fruit, ooooh, it is GOOD. I dont eat much sugar otherwise, and maybe that’s why, but the cherries off our tree, or the apples when they’re perfectly ripe, are incredible. Very tart along with the sweet as well.
I find it interesting that they’re so overclocked on refined sugar that even ripe fruit is like cardboard to them. The ripest, most sugary sought after food bar honey that we’ve ever had access to before modern times isn’t enough.
There’s eating for pleasure and then there’s frying your responses to the point that natures own treats do nothing for you.
TBF, a lot of fruit found in grocery stores isn't that great, and, frankly, is complete shit compared to fresh, fully-ripe, in-season fruit from your own backyard, a farmstand, or a you-pick farm. Most of it is varieties that have been bred for attractive appearance and ability to withstand shipping, and is picked underripe because it would just rot in transit if picked at its peak.
I grow watermelons and strawberries every year, and have two cherry trees and one decrepit peach tree. Blackberries grow wild here, as well as tiny wild strawberries. Nothing gets picked until it's ready to eat, and then I stuff my face with it, can it, or give it away that day. A perfectly ripe strawberry, or a melon that has been allowed to ripen on the vine, or a peach straight off the tree? It blows people's minds. Nothing shipped up from Mexico can even begin to compare.
Also consider that the fruits kids (at least here in the US) are given most often—bananas, Red Delicious apples, and seedless clementines—are among the blandest, least flavorful options available. They've been picked underripe, transported long distances, and (at least for apples and citrus) sat in cold storage for a while before finally getting to the consumer. They're "fresh"—only they're not.
And to a kid who gets served these fruits, but also has plenty of chances to eat sugary treats, fruit is going to seem really boring—because, frankly, the fruit they get is. So I can see how deathfats end up needing extremely sweet fruits, such as mangoes or pineapple, to get excited about fruit at all; they've learned from childhood that it's not high-reward, especially not when compared to sugar-laden junk, so as adults they stick to what's going to give them the rush they're after.