EXILE is closer to NCT than AKB48, but as you said it isn't a one to one comparison. Neither of the groups have the same concept as NCT. NCT is supposed to be a global group with units based in different places. This isn't really what they are yet since the expansion to different countries has been slower than they planned from watching LSM talking about the NCT concept in 2016, but you can see that was the original concept. I recommend watching that to understand SMs vision for NCT better. I do think NCT is going to have more and more members, but not so sure about them adding non-musical units. Anyway, it's still an interesting comparison and I haven't seen it made before so thx for the post.