Why does everyone react to Gaichu like the concept of a ghoul who retains his capacity for rational thought is completely new to them? From what I know of the setting, while not the norm for ghouls, it is not exceedingly rare. Even for the games, in Dragonfall there was a group of ghouls who were capable of restraining themselves to function as contributing members of the local society.
It might be due to Gaichu being an ex-Renraku employee. Japanese people in Shadowrun have the reputation for being very anti-metahuman and believe they have The Gift, and the Red Samurai are one notch above. He even states he was expected to kill himself to regain honor for him and his former team when he was infected, so most of the surprise comes more about how becoming one of the worst possible things a Japanese person in Shadowrun can become (for them) is seen as unfortunate and a challenge to overcome instead of something dishonorable.
There's a bit in Shadowrun 2050, a 4th edition book that converts the original 1e 2050 era to the 4e rule system, where some runners on Shadowlands express doubt at the idea of intelligent ghouls & are surprised to learn they aren't all feral. It's important to remember that while the vast majority of information we as players are provided with about the Shadowrun world is, in fact, in universe information, the stuff we get tends to either be curated as mostly true or close to it, or at least we have the benefit of the people of Shadowlands or Jackpoint to tell us where it's full of shit. Most people in universe are going to get the mess of propaganda put out by megacorporate media, and in the 2050s, that propaganda was not kind towards the infected.
Plus there is a selection bias. Intelligent ghouls would know to avoid showing themselves to living metahumans when possible without at least a basic disguise due to the danger. A guy fully covered who reeks may just be some poor wretch instead of a ghoul. Meanwhile feral ones are more likely to charge them seeking meat with no attempt at concealing their true nature.
