>>45091122niji makes merch -> niji makes money on the merch.
When nijiEN was created they were going against holoEN in its prime, back when they were still pulling 10k on completely average streams. It wasnt a suicide branch but they half expected it to underperform (they had no EN scouting, no EN market experience, no managers,... chances are if Elira hadnt joined there'd be no njiiEN at all). This means the branch was chartered with zero budget, retarded revenue streams (all merch goes to niji, because they didnt trust rushed zero experience streamers to get superchats), limited management* and equally retarded stipulations on when and how niji actually helps with streams (niji doesnt contribute at all to streams and they have to pay out of pocket for everything else. This also happens in holo, mind).
Any retarded managerial decision in nijiEN can be traced back to the branch being cretaed as a borderline suicide branch skeleton crew deal, to be filled later.
* I know you dont watch niji but until ethyria dropped nijiEN was fundamentally "indies with a logo" corporate skunkworks. nijiEN's scouting programme was, and maybe still is, Elira's aspiring vtuber hangout discord.
