> Learning a language without interesting books/movies/tv shows behind it will most probably be a chore.

What language doesn't have interesting items of culture behind it?

Anime and video games are a powerful cultural motivator for me learn Japanese because I enjoy those things almost daily.

Russia no doubt has interesting items of culture as well, but I am not exposed to them at all and therefore have no desire to learn Russian.

The first sentence is important. It's not about the abstract idea of "interesting items of culture" existing. IME they have to be already interesting to the learner to be a motivating factor.

Some people likely find any items of culture interesting. I'm not one of those people, and I suspect most around me aren't either, or we'd all know a lot more languages.

Personally, I like Spanish as a language and am learning it, and as a result I find that I have access to more Spanish movies/shows/books because I understand it better. It wasn't my goal, but it's a welcome perk, and my comment was mostly about the fact that even if you don't learn a language for it's culture, there's always a culture there for you to enjoy once you do.

That's fair. I suppose I treat learning a language as more utilitarian. I need the external motivating factor to stick with it.

Languages often have neat features, but that isn't enough for me to prioritize learning one above other things.