Remember how because of The Last the JPN fanbase called Hinata a horrible person/sister? If this really is their plan to salvage their goddess's reputation, it's going to backfire spectacularly. They've already assassinated the characters of the leads, diminished the importance of other popular characters and killed on of the most popular ones, all for Hinata. If they go through with this, the backlash against her will only increase, to the point I'd expect some behind the scenes details to begin leaking over this decision.
Hinata is controversial. I mean, shipping her with Naruto became a major point of contention within the NA fanbase and drove away a lot of moderate fans.
SP are stupid, but they are a particular type of stupid. They are so stupid that it is hard to figure out what they are doing by just hearing about; because they could be doing for various reasons. But once you watch them they are very easy to understand.
This is why it was kind of hard to figure out what was going on in the chunin exam; I wasn't watching it, and people here were not giving a good description of what was happening. So it was guessing to figure out what they were doing. While when I was watching it, plain as day what their goal was:First arc set up their new Hinata also try to connect to the manga by having that eye in order for the entire anime to be considered canon, Salad arc soften the negative implication of the gaiden to appease the SS fans, any NS/BS scene try to lure old fans back/sucker new ones, and overall make Hinata's son the perfect shounen protagonist to prove nH was the right choice.
So, this is a guess. They have hated having Hinata's family not be perfect for her. That has been burning them for the last year, if not longer. Now that they no longer have to follow the negative family image for the Uzumaki's -that was canon till the end of the chunin exam-, and the manga moves at a snail's pace. They can do what ever they want, and they can make it canon by twisting the manga team's arm. Also, on some level they must believe that Hinata is hated because some fans blame her for her families dysfunction -of course to them completely unwarranted-, and if they could just show how perfect she and her family really are everyone would love her. Ignoring the fact that it has been four years since the ending; that hatred of her has settled into the audience by this point.
Just another example of them trying to fool us and it is not working. They say one thing but something like that illustration proves that NS was the ending. Unfortunately once the original editor retired SP felt like that was their chance to change it and they wouldn't stop until they got their way. SP did think it would make them money as well but they didn't think this ending would be poorly recieved because it isn't working and Naruto/ Boruto hasn't been the same since.
Everyone assumed NS was going to happen even in WSJ so they made stuff to appeal to that pairing since it was clearly going to be canon. It was shocking when it didn't happen, and the last killed any chance of nH being accepted by the Japaneses.
It's that light novel that barely sold for 18k copies after 4 weeks. https://myanimelist-...p/news/55279982
As a comparison, SAO light novel sold about 70k - 80k range in the first week, typically it ended up towards 200k copies before dropped out of top 50.
Metantei Conan light novel also sold in the range of 80k upwards.
Light novel audience is very different from conventional manga. Trends wise, the first Naruto Shinden series sold about 160k. The most recent one sold less than 19k... and it has more focus on Hinata some more compared to the other Naruto light novels.
This further proof that Hinata doesn't sell. At all.
Thanks for the info.
Everyone in Japan knows Hinata sucks as a heroine and character. 
At this point, everyone except the few die hards that work on the Naruto Boruto team at SP.
Edited by Bail o' Lies, 17 July 2018 - 03:40 PM.