Honestly I find it hard to consider the posts of someone who is a content creator for the series with 30k+ subscribers, many videos with hundreds of thousands of views (one with 1M+), many more with tens of thousands, sponsored videos ("Get Opera GX gaming browser" is first line in the last video description) and a Patreon as being neutral and based on the reality of the situation.
I don't know how lucrative these videos are or how many people donate (nor do I really care for the specific numbers) but if there is a financial gain to be had from the series gaining popularity, bringing in more viewers/subscribers/Patreons then I can't imagine many people in that situation would make content or post opinions that could contribute to jeopardising that by turning people away by reflecting the dire state the product/series (well, not really a series now) is in. If eFootball dies on it's arse, so do any channels or websites creating content for (and making money from) modern PES, such as the YouTube channels/PES Universe etc.
Their only real options are;
(a) Cling onto eFootball, clutching at straws and desperately hoping it's not as dreadful as it seems, and try to convince people not to give up on it.
(b) Stay focussed on PES 2021 or branch out to retro-PES (probably not a big user base for this going forward)
(c) Switch to covering FIFA, which doesn't really fit the brand that was created and FIFA content creation is already a saturated space.
(d) Fully embrace the worst of mobile/lootbox toxicity.
To me (a) with a bit of (d) seem the most sensible choices for anyone with ambitions to keep their channel alive potentially as a career, however slim the chances may be with the fragile state the product seems to be in.
Imagine if this wasn't such a monumental fuck up by Konami, and they had genuinely created a brilliant next-gen football simulation and it brought in millions of new players - the leading content creators would have been quids in. This could have been their meal ticket for years to come with potential for collaborations/employment with Konami etc. I'm disappointed we won't be getting a decent football game but it must be even more crushing for people in the position where there were career opportunities.
I agree with much of what you put here, but I would add also: these sorts of factors/conditions, that may compromise someone in this position, may influence them in a number of ways. The below is not something I'm targeting at any YouTuber or Twitch streamer in particular, just someone in that position.
So it doesn't have to be as considered and cut-throat as perhaps it seems in your post – a different way those factors could weigh on someone in that situation is this: they are invested personally and financially (to some degree, though maybe not a fulltime gig) in the PES game series, and the future of PES/eFootball, to such a degree that their online sense of self is quite bolstered and determined by their place in the PES "content creator" ecosystem. I think we see this all the time across all sorts of online arenas – blue tick Twitter users, football club fan accounts (case in point: how United content creators don't address plausible Ronaldo allegations or the Giggs situation), and so on.
I think if you have sort of formed your online identity over time by having that sort of recognition in that space, it will change the stakes of the thing you do (in this case, play/analyse/create PES content) being threatened in some way. Just being in that position can make it hard for a person to even
see the negatives as they plainly are, or to see silver linings where maybe they aren't. I mean to say, all that can be quite unconscious, given with the status and recognition one has acquired in relation to the game in question.
I know that that probably comes across as really patronising; if I were a "content creator" and read that I would probably prefer to read accusations of being an out-and-out shill. But I just think it's a very human thing and difficult to escape. Of course, those being positive could end up being right – but I don't think for the right reasons. The writing is on the wall with eFootball at the moment, and it has been for some time. We should take that at face value.
I notice something very similar among those for whom modern PES games are an important part of their social world. Playing in the league I mentioned before, some of us have formed friendships from playing together, and we need PES to be decent and compatible for us to continue this particular thing that some of us do literally every day of our lives. Some league members have been
extremely hostile to criticism, and have been blindly writing off evidence that things aren't right when they are staring them in the face. And it's the same sort of thing: a social identity so bound up with the game that it actually hurts to think of it as "over", or as so much worse than it's been before.
I think it can be hard to keep a clear head if you haven't already dissociated yourself in some way from the franchise and the company behind it.