You're manipulating his words to suit your narrative.
He was referring (mostly) to the hate they received from being labelled as a NJs copycat. THAT is why they may have developed stage anxiety.
Kim Tae Ho added on, "I will tell you again. ILLIT never plagiarized Min Hee Jin's or NewJeans's concepts. We have the evidence to support these claims, but I can't just ask the public to read through all of the documents and see for themselves. Just as I said during the National Assembly audit, this is a matter for the court to decide."
Next, the BeLift Lab CEO talked about ILLIT's reactions to the plagiarism controversy. He mentioned, "Of course, the members suffered from it. But in the beginning, because they did not want to burden the company, they said that they were fine, then dealt with the stress all on their own. They were especially shocked by the 'Ignore it' controversy. The members know very well what happened during that incident. They said, 'Why do they have to go this far?'. They wanted to know what they did wrong. I think they were afraid to go on stage after that."
^^^^ That was part of an article posted by AKP regarding the CEO's statement. He neither mentioned nor referred anything about Hanni's statement and appearance at the National Assembly (I believe).