My wife feels the same way. She won't eat raw onions. But then she'll order and eat onion rings. I just roll my eyes at her. She says it's not the same. I get that.
East Coast is more into raw onions than the midwest was when I was growing up. When Uno’s came to MA, I was surprised that the same named pizza tasted differently. The manager explained that they had to change the recipe from Chicago’s dried onion to MA’s fresh onion. I still take it off salads.
Cooking onion seems to turn it into a completely different vegetable. I’ve bought into all sorts of sauteed onion dishes but still can’t bear the smell of raw. Dairy Queen onion rings are especially yummy.
Ham,cheese, raw onions, pickles, and horseradish sauce on toasted multi grain or rye . I’m weird.