I don't agree with much of your position here. Western vtubing is a shadow of the size and social relevance of Japanese vtubing, agreed, but much of western vtubing came about from a genuine love of Japanese culture. Maybe not every CEO with a vtuber company is a weeb, and there might be some talents using the social norms of vtubing to scam or be a whore, but the vast majority of the talents are doing it for the love of the game. It's hard to find a talent that doesn't have a favourite anime, or a favourite manga, a love of Japanese video game franchises, or stories about being in various fandoms or the like. Many of the people who started vtubing in the west before COVID got into the hobby by watching subbed clips of Japanese vtubing talents. That's not cynicism to me.
As for small vtuber companies disappearing in 2024, yes, but small companies fail in any sphere. I'd say there are a few legitimate reasons for that, but none of those include a "popped bubble". Phase Connect and Hololive saw double-digit growth in viewing data outside of Japan over the last year, some of the most popular Twitch streamers are vtubers. That's good, hard, evidence-based data that seems to be the exact opposite of a burst bubble to me.
My prediction for the future is that vtubing will continue to serve a viewing niche outside of Japan that's slowly growing, much like anime. Not a brave prediction, admittedly, but one that makes sense when overall indicators about the industry outside of Japan seem to be good and improving.