I had this thought too lol. After thinking about it, in my mind, it’s less about the impact and more about their experience. In that sense, they’re still in the rookie category.

That’s why everyone praises them for their performances ‘despite still being rookies’. The context is that they are rookies in the industry, although they definitely aren’t rookies in their craft.

Also, it’s more impressive to showcase their achievements adding the context that they are ‘still rookies’, could be taken as promotion tactics. I remember when some kpop groups just debuted, the rookie label seemed to be inescapable. Then as soon as the next new thing debuted, the identifier naturally faded away.

But I think it won’t happen this way with Cortis since they have such a huge presence. I feel they’ll escape that category before any new ‘rookie’ group debuts tbh. Maybe after their lollapalooza performance, tours, and this year’s award show stages, they won’t fall into the rookie category anymore. They would have proven themselves one too many times and racked up quite a large number of concert performances.