I’m not sure why it wouldn’t be. It’s certainly more physical than something like baseball.
What’s to watch? That’s my point. It’s so confined and the players are so limited by the water. But to each his own.
There are plenty of jokes about most Olympic sports not being spectator sports, but since they are broadcast once every four years there is a sense of “see it or wait another four years”. And then after you see it (I’m speaking of my own personal experience here) you wonder why you bothered.