Less so here, but I've noticed a lot of the response from Kpop fans in the wild to the FF saga involve commenters reacting emotionally rather than assessing things logically. Reading between the lines, I suspect an unconscious motivation at play is fear of change - the desire to keep Kpop from changing for as long as possible.
That FF was able to bypass the need to chart domestically as a nugu group before becoming successful abroad was a threat to their ability to gatekeep and be arbiters of which groups are promoted more. This would possibly mean more English songs, Kpop that's less catering to Korea, and more prioritization of activities abroad.
As far as the industry, big companies don't care, will leave it up to the market to decide, and pursue any avenues that make money. OTOH, the Korean Entertainment Producers Association for example seems to fear that Kpop is under threat from "external forces" and is on the side of Attrakt (they previously sided with Lee Soo Man vs. activist investor backed SM mgmt despite revelations of LSM's proven acts of financial fraud). They want to maintain the long standing relationship between artist and agency in the Kpop system, which can limit artists' global expansion. And they oppose the Lee Seung-Gi Act which serves to protect artist rights.
This fear can also be seen motivating many to support Kakao who is more of a domestic player who less people associate with being involved in music over global music giant HYBE. Their seemingly irrational takes start making sense when seen from and end goal of being able to slow globalization and maintain control at home.
JHJ and SIANH's public comments on how they see FF illustrates the difference in the two and how Kpop fans can see them as proxies in their fight. JHJ viewed Cupid simply as a Kpop hit, saw FF as representing a Korean Wave success story, and envisioned FF following the old path of BTS. SIAHN OTOH understood more clearly what led to the success of FF and where the industry will be headed, and while he skirted the classifiction question of whether Cupid was Kpop, he did say that he arranged Cupid, especially the Twin version, with a global audience in mind. I'd not underestimate that a lot of JHJ's support vs. SIAHN or Attrakt's vs. Warner is really due to what fans think the outcome would mean to Kpop.
Unfortunately for them, with 90% of Kpop being consumed abroad, the possible end of Fifty Fifty won't stop Kpop from changing. We still have XG in the 4th gen as a group based in Korea with a strategy optimized for the broader global market. Fifty Fifty and XG maybe the last of their kind since soon we'll have the JYP/Republic and HYBE/Geffen global groups that will likely be fully localized and based abroad. Trying to cater to both the Korean and the global markets at the same time instead of fully commiting to one may become increasing less workable.
