They have all the makings of a Top 4th gen group. They have an outstanding leader who writes, produce, creative directs all their title tracks (Soyeon). They have vocalists with some of the most unique & distinct voices in the industry (Minnie/ Yuqi). Great visuals that are no less beautiful than any other top groups' visuals (Miyeon/Shuhua). They even had a stan-attracting, viral, X-Factor main dancer (Soojin). So they have all the required ingredients of a top group.
The reality is NewJeans, Ive, Lesserafim, Aespa, Itzy (maybe less the case for Itzy now) outperforms them on some metrics (while Idle outperforms them on others), so there's no clear winner. But those groups all came from the Big 4 or with members from a hit Produce show (the center and 1st ranking IT girl no less). They all had huge predebut fandoms ready to support them even before they released any music. Yet Idle can compete with these group despite coming from a much smaller company.
Before people say "But Cube is a big company" - um, yeah, maybe in comparison to all other companies in the industry but that doesn't mean much when the valuation in the stock market between Cube and say JYP (the smallest Big 4) is like 10X. Their building don't even have airconditioning in the practice room, all the furniture are broken, the fridge doesn't work & they even have to recycle trash sofa thrown out by Minnie. Almost any money they have now is earned by Idle - every cent spent on them they've earned for themselves.
