Congee can be super good. It’s all about what you make it with. We used to make something similar to this recipe: https://www.tastetoronto.com/recipes/summer-corn-and-chicken-congee

The corn cobs in the stock give it this awesome sweet grassy flavor. (sounds weird, but it’s so good) A bunch of ginger and onions. And, we’d prepare a chili oil with Sichuan peppers and fried garlic slices to drizzle on top. It was flavor overload. Set your mouth buzzing (the chili and Sichuan pepper oil, if you’ve never experienced it … idk how to explain, it’s great), warmed you up and made you feel good for the rest of the day.

Congee can be excellent. It’s not necessarily boring.

If you totally fucked up risotto, flavorless, beyond mushy, whala, you have congee. Source, lived in Asia. You can add Knorr chicken powder and throw some semi dried, half rotten fish on it to make it worse if you want.