These days the coronavirus isn't really severe anymore right? Not saying that research should be stopped, but wondering if those who were going to die due to coronavirus sir to other health complications in combination with COVID probably already did die, which would be a majority of the deaths. (Yes, it is quite brutal but I believe this is true). These days even masks are not worn.

There's also a YouTube channel called Hook which goes into the history of various brands/companies

Pretty sure Nika has been planned from the beginning, he had been waiting for it for a long time. Nikita and Gear 5 are major plot points and would definitely have been sketched up in his right sketch of the manga. He did have qualms that these days anime/manga was not "cartoony" enough and tended to be more serious.

It could also be that they are forced to be an idiot, like for content creators (MKBHD, Tekking101)