>>11237908The first-month collab ban has been explained multiple times before, it's there so the talents can
a) develop their own characters and establish relationships with their fanbases first, without leaning too much on their much bigger senpais (who'd otherwise overshadow them if they collabed right from the start), at least in the beginning.
b) foster some intra-generational bonds, building a team spirit among your mates, and it "forces" you to at least to do some initial group activities, before you splinter off into your individual senpai collabs later anyway.
There's much to criticize Cover about, but the first-month collab ban isn't one of these things, it seems to work fine (and even if it didn't, it's just one month anyway), and there are more benefits than detriments, so they're gonna keep doing it this way.
As for your other points:
Cover, at least for EN, seems rather deliberate in what "outside" collabs to allow or not, sure. Part of that is just basic japanese buerocracy autism, part of it is the recognition that "hey we are the biggest company in this space, so we have little to gain and much to lose from outside collabs" so therefore they are more predisposed to reluctance than a laissez-faire "let the talents do what they want" approach. Is it a good thing or a bad thing? It can be both, for sure.
This duality also manifests in /vt/ itself. There are some "board-favorites" of non-holo vtubers, where the majority opinion is anons lamenting that big bad Cover isn't allowing collabs with them, but on the other hand, there are also some that are majorly disliked on the board, and when Cover's restrictive rules prevent collabs with them, the very same Anons praise Covers ironfist approach. So yeah, it's not just a simple "outside collab ban rules, good or bad?" question, because for most people it's "Cover's rules are bad when they prevent collabs with people I like, but the same Cover rules are also good when they prevent collabs with people I don't like"... (and complicating matters further, everyone also differs in what people they like and dislike), so there's no clearcut solution that'd satisfy everyone.
HoloEN feeling fragmented and distant, is more on the talents personality types, most of them are vaying degrees of loners, introverts, and more passive natured (at least in the social aspect). That maybe is on Cover's scouting and talent department, but they had a reason why they selected those five and not just a generation completely full of social butterflies. And whatever subjective misgivings you have of them "lacking chemistry", their overall success of the first EN division still seems to prove Cover's selection right. Bringing in Gen 2 and having more people to play around with will probably improve things, even for Gen 1, because more people also means more chances to find someone to connect with. HoloJP in the first few generations also felt more solo-driven than now, as they only reached "criticial mass" after Gen 3 and then had enough people so that everyone could have one or more friends that fit them.
