@Demosthenes The only vtuber I know who said she likes them in a "strange" way is Matsuri, who actually reads Comic LO.

If you are talking about the general public, there is a bit of everything. There is people that likes them for the "cutesy" factor, then there is people who likes them in a sexualized way, but still keeping adult traits on them (exaggerated hips/proportions, oppai, etc), and then there is people who actually uses it as a replacement for the real stuff.

I've heard of some artists getting arrested for using real CP as reference material.

IMHO, as long as they keep it inside of the fictional realm and nobody (no real human beings) is harm, I don't care.