There’s a reason the same fans who are celebrating 1.6 also celebrate 1m on Hanteo. We know what preorder is and everyone act the same for every group. 1.6 p.o is an achievement on its own and fans calling them 1.6m sellers based on that isn’t a reach and isn’t invented by aespa’s fandom. Fans usually say it is because they take it as the final number/or even less since some albums exceeds the p.o.
Not to mention you seem to misunderstand the chart acc’s statement and take great offense on what they said because of it. They first explained to those who were downplaying stock p.o that it is an achievement based on demand which includes the fans p.o.
Companies announce it as an achievement for all artists and fans of all groups take it as such. The chart acc on their second paragraph (where you seem to misunderstand) they said that it’s confirmed that 1m of that number is pre orders by fans NOT STOCK PRE-ORDER. They initially mentioned that overall the total number is stock p.o (they never said all 1.6 were not stock pre-order) they said at least 1m were confirmed fan sales not stock pre orders. and we see that it’s true in the first week tracking.
the haters act like it is first time a label announce shipments as units sold. YG did it, SM did it, JYP did it.
The usual kpop fans will know that labels ESPECIALLY SM will not overproduce albums (their new albums always out of stock). Stores ordering are basically as good as units sold for the label unless there are massive returns (in most cases, there wont be unless the stores overestimated demand). 80% of the shipment usually ended up as actual sales 1 or 2 months later (do take note, not all stores ship out immediately. For example, SGS doesnt ship out immediately). The remaining are probably not Hanteo certified.