About Hinata
I recently came across a comment on another thread mentioning that the user felt like Hinata was a filler member, and I would have said that during the early days,(because of her very limited lines in early tracks) but now I think she was initially considered to the group for her dancing skills and eventually added for her unique singing timbre, and how well it blends in with Chisa's and Juria's voices.
I have a feeling that the reason why she wasnt included as much in the early songs was because she needed to earn her place in the songs, because she was probably the weakest in the vocal line, in live performing.
Side note; during their performance of 4seasons, on the tiktok livestream of the hitc performance; people were shitting on her voice because of her vibrato (and also on Juria's vibrato)and it really grinded my gears. Who wouldnt sound winded after over half an hour of nonstop dancing and singing?? Honestly, I admired that they removed all the backtracks and autotune they usually use when dancing and singing to prevent them from sounding completely crazy when dancing; for every 4seasons performance.
Side side note; You can compare Katseye and XG all you want, but they also used to compare all the pop girls back in the 2000's and that did nothing to lessen their legacy.