It's undeniable that Aespa is hugely popular with the Korean youths and they are dominating the charts. Yet the adult public don't really seem that aware of Aespa. And they give the final blessing for the NGG title.
My theory is that due to the corona a lot of parents bought their kids more smartphones, tablets, laptops, computers. Even though Korea didn't go into Trump style lockdowns they had a lot of restrictions and kids had nowhere to go, so electronics acted as the babysitters. So with these extra devices, probably a lot of them connected to their parent's phone #s, kids had extra places to stream Next Level and Savage on. DON'T underestimate the power of youth. They were a big part of Love Scenario's success, and it helped them win song of the year.