Koreans do not eat straight up kimchi as a snack. I've seen this so many times and every time, I imagine myself just eating straight up kimchi. Do you know how strong of a flavour kimchi is? It uses a LOT of red pepper flakes, garlic, salted baby shrimp, SALT IN GENERAL. We use POUNDS of salt on 김장/gimjang/kimchi making day. Even if it is rinsed away, how would we eat it straight up? The American equivalent would be like eating butter/ketchup/mustard/etc. out of the container BY ITSELF without anything else. Here is some links to kimchi making videos to give you an idea.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sX_wDCbeuU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dt95ynNf9CM