Why I think fan girls are the major contribution to market drying up for more mature girl groups.
As long as I have been to kpop, fanboys attitude have not changed much. Always happy to check out the new groups, and trade off.
Its really the attitude of fan girls that has changed toward girl groups and hence dried the market for mature girl groups.
When I got to kpop in 2nd generation, fan girls liked girl groups they could look up to. People they saw as role models on how to be successful in their own age group and older. They saw the inspiration for their future in them.
Nowadays, fan girls look for girl groups that replace their past. They stan whoever presents the ideal version of their own young self or rather how they fantasize about their own teenage years in their shadows. They want someone to replace whatever past they had for them. Thats also why they seem to refer themselves as unnies of 4th gen ggs. The questions they ask these girls in fan signs always suggest that they have this expectation of idols to represent that ideal past.
I dont speculate about how morally correct this is, but I do think if someone's past is so painful that they feel the need of replacing it, their money will be better spend on therapy rather than kpop albums and fan signs.