Elira Pendora is the perfect VTuber.
There are many reasons why people choose to watch VTubers, but they can all be split into two categories. First, the flair, which could be general affection to anime girls or boys, or it could be their design and voice, or it may be the games they play or the art they create, or just interest in entertainment - in general, it's what makes any VTuber appealing to a given person in the first place. Second, it's the content: by that I don't mean just the contents of their videos and livestreams, but the content that they bring into the viewer's life: it's the real reason why the same people keep watching the same VTubers, but it's rarely talked about - it may be just entertainment, or relatability, or getting to know another person, or hearing interesting and funny things, or escape from harsh reality; but usually, it's a combination of all of the above, plus more.
These are reasons why people choose to watch VTubers and to continue doing so. All of them are subconscious, and it's almost always a vast mix of different feelings and desires; but it all boils down to the "flair" and the "content", which is why it's possible to have a perfect VTuber despite the endless subjective criteria potentially used to compare them.
Before proceeding, let's discuss the most important part of the "content". Although it consists of numerous elements, there is a most fundamental reason of all. Answer this: why do people choose to engage in things with "flair" and "content" anyway? Not just VTubers or even content creators; anything that isn't productive, but has an appeal and brings a good time. We all want to get better in life, and we all feel pride in being better than others. All of us want to feel safe and accomplished. By that logic, it makes the most sense to keep working on your long-term goals whenever possible, right? Wrong.
If you do nothing but work, you will work yourself to death, either physically or mentally; it doesn't matter how noble your cause is or how good the results are. The truth is, humans have been put into a world that is far from a "petri dish" with perfect conditions for self-improvement and expectation of nothing but good things, or at least progress. It's impossible to live a life without problems, and days are riddled with them through and through, with their amount directly correlating with how much you work on yourself or your surroundings. It could be the amount of misfortunes that increase with the amount of events that could or could not go well, it could be an increase of the scope of one's goals as they achieve what they previously wanted, or it could be regular mental and physical wear; in the end, there's always a fundamental exhaustion to human life that needs to be relieved, no matter who you are or how you live; it's perfectly normal. It's why we need energy in form of food and repairs in form of sleep; and we need that for our conscious brain, too (the "soul" if you may).
That's exactly why we do things that bring nothing but immediate pleasure, and which technically would be destructive towards our "real" goals; but really, such pastimes heal our bodies and minds, allow is to sit back and enjoy a given moment, and after all let us work on our lives with greater efficiency and much lesser misery.
Now, this could turn into an even longer philosophical debate, but my point is that the ultimate reason for indulging in flair-content activities - much of which are entertainment - is an inherent need to temporarily get away from life, enter a safe space, and focus on healing yourself instead of doing anything "productive". It's not a matter of depression or escapism. Rather than thinking of it as "escaping from the real world", a-la schizophrenia, think of it as "escaping into a pit-stop", a perfectly normal part of life's race and without which it cannot be won.
Continuing with that analogy, what is it really that people seek in these escapes? What makes an activity enjoyable and healing? It's whatever was broken or worn down during the fast and competitive part of the race. Some people, like athletes and physical laborers, need a greater time for physical rest; introverts that work around people need private alone time; scientists need a time of thinking about things that are easy to understand; etc. Note that some of these "injuries" are common to most, if not all, people. For example, everyone experiences negative emotions, so they need moments of feeling happiness. Everyone makes hard choices, so they need problems that are easy to solve, or things that meet their expectations in a good way. Everyone goes through moments that require focus, so they need to sit back and relax. Everyone feels and experiences anger, so they need to both see and show kindness. Everyone has to talk to people that don't understand them, so they need a friend, or at least someone relatable or with common interests. The list goes on and on.
