Mostly in that it’s not what a futon actually is, in its country of origin.
In japan, a futon is not a sofabed, it solely bedding and during the day it gets stowed into a closet (or a corner of the room).
It’s not seating and it doesn’t have a frame. Those are western “additions”. But not improvements, because futons were never intended for slatted frames (or even hard surfaces). Because of this incompatibility and the desire to make them permanent the “futon-style mattresses” thus have to become much thicker and heavier, thereby losing the flexibility and stowability of the original, and just becoming bad mattresses (la requirement for sofabeds, really).
In essence, “futons are shit” is one more example of taking something which is perfectly fine, moving it completely out of its context, misusing it entirely, and then calling it bad after making it so. And the badness gets attributed to futons where it’s been a universal constant of sofabeds.
Futon-style mattresses have not made sofabeds worse, they’ve always been shit[1] they’ve just tarnished the name of futons.
[1] Which in fairness is not normally an issue, their purpose is to be an ok-at-best couch with some ad-hoc bedding so guests don’t sleep on the floor.
In japan, a futon is not a sofabed, it solely bedding and during the day it gets stowed into a closet (or a corner of the room).
It’s not seating and it doesn’t have a frame. Those are western “additions”. But not improvements, because futons were never intended for slatted frames (or even hard surfaces). Because of this incompatibility and the desire to make them permanent the “futon-style mattresses” thus have to become much thicker and heavier, thereby losing the flexibility and stowability of the original, and just becoming bad mattresses (la requirement for sofabeds, really).
In essence, “futons are shit” is one more example of taking something which is perfectly fine, moving it completely out of its context, misusing it entirely, and then calling it bad after making it so. And the badness gets attributed to futons where it’s been a universal constant of sofabeds.
Futon-style mattresses have not made sofabeds worse, they’ve always been shit[1] they’ve just tarnished the name of futons.
[1] Which in fairness is not normally an issue, their purpose is to be an ok-at-best couch with some ad-hoc bedding so guests don’t sleep on the floor.