>>10449068Yes.
It's simple, you look at what they produce.
From a vtuber's point of view, a collab partner is beneficial if their viewers will be pleased with watching them - improving stream quality and retaining viewers - or if it will eventually or immediately draw new viewers to them. A collab partner is a leech if it turns their current viewers off, or sucks viewers away from them.
What do people like ZUN, Sugita, kokorobeats, etc, produce? Something completely different from vtubing. You don't leave vtubing when you consume their work. And their work has to stand on their own merit intead of audience popularity; even for the closest thing to an e-celeb, Sugita, very few people say "oh my god I HAVE to watch this because Sugita is in it", if they even know it. So there's no leeching there, but quite some prestige and content.
What do other vtubers produce? Well, yes, they are competition. But it is a calculated risk. You can share fanbases. Casual viewers who only watched one might start spending more time on vtubers and become more committed to the medium. As long as they are a vtuber, you're likely going to keep running into them. They can keep helping you produce content over the years and retain your viewers.
What does rpr produce? Only high skill Apex. Do people really watch Ollie, or really, any vtubers, for Apex skills? Not really; they are attracted first, perhaps, to the branding, and then watch for the personality. At the same time, you're guaranteed to do well with him on your team. So he does actually help to produce good content, people like to see their vtubers do well and pretend it's partially because of their skill instead of the carry. It retains viewers and he's not a strong competitor.
Now, Connor. What does he produce? What does he compete on? That's right, branding and personality - the same arena as all variety streamers. He himself is the product. He offers no particular skills. His viewers won't become yours because you're just another one in a long line of variety content for him to use. When the next fad comes along, you can't count on him not to ignore you for the next hottest thing like he has done to all his past topics. Even as a streamer, he isn't a vtuber, so he doesn't keep viewers in the circle. They're more likely to spread out to the rest of twitch instead of filtering back to you, watching you less and less.
There's really no contest.
