Nah

I rather disagree. He is impressing her other than just in bed. He is keeping her secret and telling her about his country. He is the one person she can truly be herself around and I think that impressed her. Yeah they’re having sex a lot but we’ve already seen that that isn’t a big deal for her and she will do it anyone who has a face she likes. My point is, in bed he is replaceable, as a person in her eyes he is not. And yes she did ruin his pride a bit, but it’s much better than the former living circumstances —not that that makes it ok—and really if he hated it he isn’t watched and could leave. You also claim that in most stories the concubines don’t sleep with the emperor or whoever’s in power due to the differences of intelligence or whatnot, however everyone the empress has slept with has been of considerable intellectual prowess. Kang Jun himself is quite smart despite his shyness and lack of proper manners for the situation, as shown by their constant conversations about law and other matters. My point is, there isn’t a large intellectual gap and even if there was the empress and who she sleeps with doesn’t follow the rules of “typical” stories like this. In my eyes the gender “reversal” isn’t really key to the story and how valuable the plot is, though it is a nice change of pace to see the woman in the position of flustering the man after so many generic —if sometimes interesting— romance comics/novels.