Virtual youtubers are a whole new media from your average streamer and they are not the same to me. Its like the differences between pro wrestling and your standard wrestling you would see in like the Olympics. For pro wrestling the actors hide behind a persona sometimes complete with backstories that they take on. This is just like talent from Hololive and other vtubers who do the same thing. In standard competition wrestling you find just normal people who need no persona just like in the case of your average streamer. They are out there being themselves sometimes with face cams to complete them. Sure they might have persona's but they are not completely hidden from the world. Compare that to the vtubers whose voice actors are unknown to me. They can leverage that to stay anonymous using their persona they have built up. You wont find that often in other genres of entertainment. That is why its not astroturfed to me and entertaining in a way that normal streamers are not.

Sorry if I got into a bit of a rant there this is something of a passion of mine.