>>37812296They can never be that. An 'authentic' and 'free' streamer would not flatly turn down all friend requests, close DMs, ignore messages from fans in multiplayer games, or refuse to talk to fans on voice chat. They would engage with them and turn it into content, and maybe even make some more friends along the way.
If a vtuber pretends it's just natural to dodge it all just because it might bring their viewers 'uncomfortably close', they can never claim authenticity.
In fact the first layer of deception is the avatar itself, and it's that which already lays the groundwork for the audience to accept a certain level of distance in exchange for, well, the expectation to maintain this and not raise and drop it to various people whenever it suits them. You can't have your cake and eat it too.
