There are lots of conditions, but major part came from new authors. As new Author is signed in so his portfolio is put into Elements (or Author can add whatever he wants in case with VH for example). If Author with 1k items of stock footages signed in, so it’s 1k+ items into elements. And another part: lots of Authors (specifically on VH) don’t put the whole portfolio in one time, they add it by parts to see how it goes. So most of that added items wasn’t even NEW items, they have been already added on the market.
And yes, from market to market situation will be different because of different rules of adding new items.
Basically all these answers were given, people just don’t want to accept what isn’t aligned with their point of view.
I’m pretty sure no one will abort all these experiments because of authors who spams hashtags here. It can be aborted only in case of really bad numbers. But as everything goes as it is I would expect page design changes (WP page like) to be implemented over all other categories across markets.
And one last thing:
Don’t expect socialism in any way, I think everyone should accept current reality whether it’s bad or good and by accepting current market conditions everyone should decide what they will do next and what strategy to use here or outside.