I am also very confused tbh. Some deals must have happened behind the scene but why would they want to fumble the bag this bad? One weverse album can already give hobi almost 500k, cant imagine how many proper physicals can deliver.
Bighit Music sure likes to experiment though. They experimented with BE’s lackluster rollout last 2020 (1 super expensive version and 1 cheaper version with >4 months gap) and seeing it didnt work out extremely well, they fixed it with PROOF’s rollout. Is hobi their guinea pig or there are deals happening behind the scene, we’ll never know sadly.
Another user pointing out paper quality, they already experimented with this environmental paper thingy since MOST7 photobook last 2020 but somehow can give normal photobook quality for limited merchs lmaooo they’re so inconsistent.