How can poor performance in a world filled with causal kpop success stans possibly be a good thing for Somi's career?
You have to understand that Somi's SB cup "scandal" was and still is a much bigger problem for Somi than other idols that were part of it, due to her mostly casual fan base and her positive "human-vitamin" brand. There was a constant stream of negative comments on her content that overwhelmed the small fan base, making engaging with Somi's content a negative experience, undermining her brand. It was even affecting Somi's ability to interact with other idols, which is a key element of her promo and brand.
Somi's team knew that they had to find a way for Somi to get past the scandal before she could possibly hit again. They needed to change the narrative.
How? As long as an moral infraction is forgivable, there will always be an amount of punishment/humiliation past which peoples' anger and derision will shift to sympathy and feeling sorry for the person.
So, they needed to drag Somi through the mud a bit (without hurting her brand). A great way to do that is to have Somi release a great b-side that isn't the right type of song to hit in the summer as a single with minimal promo, almost guaranteeing poor numbers. The goal is for it to be liked, but not a hit.
So far, it is working. The amount of hateful comments has significantly decreased and sympathetic comments have increased.
Due to the poor performance of Extra, Somi is starting to become an underdog, setting her up perfectly for the Title Track release. As long as they are confident that the Title has hit potential, and are willing to greatly increase promo from the incredibly low bar set by Extra, an underdog comeback story should be easy to pull off, and everybody loves a good underdog story.
