There are some dishes that skew too sweet almost universally – like pad thai.
Last weekend we got an order of pad thai and one of pad see ew – the pad thai was cloyingly sweet, but the pad see ew was well-balanced.
I think something similar happens with curries, perhaps based on who is likely to order to what. I find panang and massaman will skew sweet at the same places that serve a well-balanced red and green curry.
Never had a larb that I would call “sweet”, though.
Catering to the expected audience for a dish, I suspect.
