I've been meaning to come back to this and this Apple Music thing just reminded me.
You've voiced a number of my frustrations with the fracture in WayZeNnis - I would say there is a split between those who want to be and are happy to be officially part of the NCT whole and those who are still carrying a very large chip on their shoulders on how WayV was treated earlier in their careers. They were truly unfortunate to get hit with the 1-2 punch of THAAD and COVID, which dented their growth and promotional opportunities in China (plus I'll never understand why SM didn't work harder to build a promotional connection with Lay and his successful career - some sort of profit sharing thing that would allow them to perhaps function through his label?) SM is shitty in a lot of ways and doesn't understand China but thinks it does; however, its hands were a bit tied with these two issues and not acknowledging it doesn't it make it less true.
I am sympathetic with long-time WayZeNnis that yes, it felt hurtful when it often felt like WayV were the side piece as SM aggressively promoted Dream and 127 (this is why I can't get onboard with people complaining about the lack of Dream promo - as it was considerably more frequent higher profile than what WayV was getting). And there's still a lot of little things that add to this feeling - for example, the NCT IG does not follow the WayV IG, but follows the other units. It also doesn't follow any individual WayV members, despite several of them being the most active and followed Neos on IG. The official NCT Twitter also doesn't follow the WayV one, but does follow the other units. The official YT channels didn't either but they at least revamped those. When you look in the SMTown store, WayV is still listed as separate from NCT. Those are just a few examples of the ways where I get why Wayzennis don't feel included.
I think SM made some smart decisions in promoting the group in 2020, including ongoing YT content from members, a larger presence on Weibo and IG and more content in English or with immediate English subtitles to reach the crossover market. I think they've done some solid work since NCT 2020 to maintain the connectivity between the groups with crossover content and songs.
However, I've been really frustrated with two aspects as a Wayzenni that make me look askew at the fandom. First, everyone spent so much time complaining about not being included but then when we were included, sitting stubbornly with their chins jutting out with "we did it all our own - fuck them." Like isn't that what we wanted? To be treated officially. Grr. It especially cheesed me off when the guys seemed so excited to be involved in the all unit combination activities and people were still so negative. This is one of the reasons tbh that I've dropped Wayzenni off my sig - yes, I still adore the boys and consider myself a Wayzenni - but if we keep separating ourselves, then how are we going to be a part? By splitting out WayZenNi, it kind of implies they're not NCT. (I don't count the individual fandom badges that way because it makes sense to me, but like my sig didn't say "EXO-L-NCTZEN-127ZEN-WAYZENNI", you know what I mean?)
The second thing that lost me was the sub-units shit. Look, I've been in kpop long enough that the akgae is strong - god knows EXO was and is like that and NCT more so and WayV maybe even more so still, but it really pissed me off that such a large section of Wayzennis went from "it's us against the world" to not supporting solos because it wasn't their favorite member or because their favorite member didn't have a sub unit announced. I've been listening to people cry about justice for Ten and Winwin for as long as I've been a Czennie and I agree there is much to be angry about (Kun, too) - notably for Ten and Kun, sitting in the SM dungeon - but there's been a tendency since WayV debuted for those two melodramas to overshadow everything else the group is doing.
Do I adore Jaehyun? Yes. Am I pissed that Doyoung has more solo shit going? No. Not only am I out here trying to support all my boys, I am not astonished to see one of the MAIN VOCALISTS getting vocal gigs. (I mean, I might hear you if it was a non-main vocalist, but the fact that you would say you weren't going to support the group/riot because two of the three main vocalists had a single is.. 
)
Ten is tremendously talented and will have many future opportunities - which we then saw shortly thereafter with his sub-unit AND solo. He was also out front on several NCT 2020 songs. He's doing fine. People don't need to shout about it on every damned WayV release. Similarly, Winwin's amount of lines is ridiculous, I agree (like if you don't think he's good enough to put on a song, why put him in the group? I know why, but still..) But I hate the way that it overshadows EVERY thing WayV does. It gets old - can we focus on what the group is doing? (I also know I'm probably a selfish jerk here - as much as I want everyone to participate, I don't want to lose an excellent YangYang rap for a meh Winwin one. [Maybe swap out a Lucas one?] This is the same prob I have in 127 - while I would love for Jungwoo to have more lines, I don't want to sacrifice any Taeil-Doyoung vocal shows and warm Jaehyun loveliness to make room for it and I suppose that makes me a jerk that I'm less concerned about equal line distribution.)
Since Wayzennis can't even agree on supporting our own damned group, I don't know how we expect fans of the other sub-units to support them. Hell, many of the all-NCT pages do a better job of updating about the group than WayV specific ones.
Sorry I'm venting but I find it so frustrating. AHHH. I think Winwin not being in NCT 2021 will be a bigger barrier than Lucas not being in it, which is precisely why I'm pretty confident Winwin will be a part of it. Despite the vocal "he should be there contingent," I think most understand it's just too soon for Lucas. I mean, hell Chanyeol had to cool his jets for a long time for a much milder scandal, so there's no way Lucas is rolling out this soon and risking the brand.
Tl, dr: I'm a Wayzenni and while I think there are some valid things to be upset about, the fandom frustrates the shit out of me too.
