oh i do have a lot of ships where the older one tops! for instance mo du/silent reading is my bible and the work that pushed me into danmei in the first place, and the gong is older than the shou by around seven years.

for me it's more like...i'd automatically be more interested in any given work when it's marketed as gekokujou-flavored (not necessarily younger/older but also lower ranking/higher ranking, etc.) even without knowing anything else about the work, whereas marketing any given work as featuring older top/younger bottom wouldn't appeal to me in the same way.

also i have this thing where in some cases the opposite of my preferred dynamic squicks me off pretty badly and that's also something i take into consideration. student/teacher? yes please, but teacher/student? no thank you lol

i don't read works featuring younger bottom/older tops exclusively either, it's just that a lot of specific tropes/characterization that i enjoy can be found in those works. i am but a simple ojisan with simple needs 🥺🥺🥺