You can think this or think that, but in the end, it's all about the results. The result is, they are steadily gaining a fan base (backed by data) and that's all that matters. Why does it even matter if Weeekly and StayC surpassed Everglow in sales (Which they haven't yet)?
If Korea doesn't like Everglow, fine. A K-Pop group doesn't necessarily need the backing of Korea to be successful. Look at dreamcatcher, they are selling well but they ain't getting any streams in Korea either.
Also, I think you missed the point of me comparing Everglow to Ateez. The point is, they both are from NUGU companies but they are making a name for themselves.
Ofc they are growing, nobody denies that, but the question was what's holding them back, and I listed my answers. They aren't growing enough to compete with big 3 newer ggs and neither are outselling the new rookies like weeekly and stayc, so there's clearly something stopping them.
Hanteo lists EG latest album around 35k. Stayc's Staydom is around 60k now and weeekly's we play is surpassing 35k soon. so yeah, outselling both physically and digitally, based on latest songs
as you mentioned, DC does poorly in Korea but they sold 100k+ for their last album so that gives them a more"dark horse" vibe than EG, imo
But then again, they didn't comeback for a long time, I'll gladly eat my words if this next cb surpasses the physical and digital sales of the ggs mentioned