!!THIS IS NOT MEANT TO HATE BTW!! katseyes a social experiment to make way for the expansion of other more inclusive kpop groups basically picture this, HYBE x Geffen knew who they wanted to debut beforehand, they made the survival show to gain publicity in the kpop community so they can start building a fanbase. The market katseye as a funny relatable girl group, then you gain attention from younger kids some non kpop stans which grows your fanbase even more, then finally you debut your girls, a lot of talk surrounding the survival show adds more publicity (even if its bad). You then make your first comeback, decent songs, practically dipping your toes in the water before getting your feel for how other people would react to a group like this. People like it, you release another album. You blow UP not because your group is talented or beautiful (which they are btw) but because the song was so comically bad its crazy, you have people interested in what this song is so they listen to it which adds more of a fanbase. People grow to love the songs and then you gain popularity. You release a few more decent songs to make sure you keep your fans. You realize that the stupid meaningless songs are the ones that are getting you popularity so you drop another one and that blows up too, but this time its a less positive reaction, people catch onto what youre doing. You begin getting hate for the stupid songs and it begins to go south. You realize your experiment might be coming to an end so you begin to dismantle your group in the easiest way possible, making everyone think its a hiatus and soon no one comes back. hence Manon's hiatus
sorry for my grammar + harshness, this is just my opinion/theory btw
