VShojo has connections with artists that bypass queue. NIji has jack shit.
Hay nijisanji can add more queue into it. They
has something.
Wrong skin tone.
I think with this conversation we've ended up discussing the two extremes of full kayfabe vs. pseudo-fleshtuber, when in reality I think it's more of a spectrum that we've just shifted a bit further to one side on recently. I don't feel like kayfabe is fading entirely, but past-life discussion becoming more acceptable has definitely weakened it in a sense.
For me personally the difference between a respectable vtuber vs. one who's clearly using it as a platform to whore themselves out isn't whether they and their community play into kayfabe, but whether they stream/post to their accounts in character. It's a very, very subtle distinction but an important one; "kayfabe" by its original definition involves presenting the performance as though it's "real" which I don't think is a huge necessity (it doesn't bother me that the second wave of Phase Invaders were publicly credited and that no attempt is ever made to obscure them, for example), but integrating bits and pieces of character lore into on-screen conversations adds a unique vtuber flavour to it, which couldn't be replicated with a webcam instead of an animated model.
Going back to the wrestling again (I know almost nothing about wrestling outside of the stuff that crosses over with anime women so bear with me), when I first got into vtubers several years ago, the one smartarse making wink-wink comments about a vtuber's past life was on par with the "you guys know wrestling is fake, right?" guy, he was an arsehole ruining the fun for people who wanted to truly immerse themselves in the show. Nowadays every second comment is the smartarse making wink-wink comments about a vtuber's past life, and it seems barely anyone cares any more? People aren't as dead-set on watching the actual reaper Mori Calliope, they're just as entertained watching the reaper Mori Calliope as performed by Karen Calanni.
I'd just point to ADVENT, they are the most kayfabe vtuber the entire EN scene has had since myth debut. All of them have PLs and it doesn't really fucking matter. Noone tuned into Bijou's stream when she talked about eating rocks and what not and get their immersion broken knowing she used to pilot a water model, that just isn't a thing. People can wink wink point point at their PL and it breaks 0 immersion all the same. Advent's number 1 kayfabe machine, Fuwamoco, that beats even a lot of the JP in kayfabing, are also the only one doing fleshtubing activities out of those 4.
Using "past-life discussion becoming more acceptable has definitely weakened it" logic, in 2022- early 2023 everyone in EN was doing kayfabing, then Advent debuted in 2023, normalized PL talk (Advent's debut was when people started openly talk about PL in every platform including reddit who used to be strictly against it) and it's Advent's fault that kayfabing is now dying. It's literally the fucking opposite. Kayfabe died long before PL talk getting normalized and then Advent revived the concept. Noone gave a shit about kayfabing in 2022- early 2023 beside hololive and Vox.
Actually, I know some of the NijiEN guys like Vox leans heavily into kayfabing. But I dont think any of the NijiEN girls does? (Except for maybe the newest gen since I dont know what they do and scarle who kayfabe as a brown skinned twitchthot). One of the NijiEN girls more popular clips are them going into a strip club.
Millie has one great stream about her hat and then nothing about it ever again and she even dropped it from her model.
What killed kayfabe for the EN scene has nothing to do with past life and more about VShojo and NijisanjiEN existing and getting popular. Why would new/aspiring vtuber gives a shit about kayfabing if the popular ones arent doing it? Kayfabe was already dead years before PL talk becoming normalized. We actually are seeing a resurgence of kayfabing as the PL talk strengthened thanks to Advent. You are pointing your weapon at the wrong perpetrators. It's not Waabyuu, Ally & Sally, Sachimu, LemonLeafASMR, Namirin who are killing kayfabing, it's Elira, Enna, Millie, Petra, Ironmouse, etc. who are doing it. If you want to gatekeep, kill off all the posers, spread the words against them, not focus your energy on suppressing PL talks.