I think if she hadn't made those statements, her trajectory of success would have been drawn out more, but I don't think she'd be #1 today. She probably would have seen more like Ayu's trajectory where she peaks and then has a solid 10+ years where she's still relatively toward the top of things (#1 singles, albums, videos, lots of magazines and promo, etc.). But ultimately music is typically a young person's game, since that's the audience that spends the most money on it. It would have been inevitable for her popularity to decrease.
That said, I think the public opinion of her is relatively good - she's supportive of younger and new artists, she's always on TV and does a lot of collab performances, etc. If anything, I think it's just that people don't think of her as active artist these days, or just aren't interested in her music. She's very "cool" and could pull in a younger audience, but I think it would take a more pop-forward music approach to really get more traction. I could very easily see her having a Namie-like comeback if she wasn't making music she wanted to, and instead focused only on success. But I'm much happier that she's doing what makes her happy, personally.
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