I just thought it was weird that people were so into that topic that it reached a high reply count

'loli stuff' has been such a hot debate button online that I'd say it's practically bait. If you browse that thread, you'll probably understand why it draws such a crowd, but I'll summarize: both sides are fighting for their principles so hard that it makes it hard for negotiation to occur.

I can't really say when it became such a topic, but I started paying more attention to it in relation to culture war stuff having to do with imageboards being attacked.