Since I am in a solemn mood today I will not be sarcastic and actually explain things plainly. The short version is monopoly.
The long answer is that you have separated and divided communities (Gravity Tales, Wuxiaworld etc.), readers, and translators that have no central gathering (except for NovelUpdates, the website that tracks translations and new chapters.) or stable funding (Patreon and donations are varied, and unstable for most translators that aren't apart of a website like GT or WW).
Qidian plans to become the hegemony of Chinese and Korean to English translations website that brings all those divided communities, readers, and translators under one roof, in a corporate sense their plan is to expand and absorb the novel translation landscape bit by bit and create a monopoly.
Whoever was the person or people behind this idea, this clearly shows how they know what they are doing and how perspective they are in terms of opportunities, as you can pretty much see novel translations as ripe, untamed wilderness that seemingly no one wants but with much funding can become a massive and profitable farming endeavor.
Qidian first created this website and let most novels be free, alas some locked with ads. Slowly as their grip and influence grew, as did their selection, they were able to slowly make more and more novels with ads with readers annoyed but finding it acceptable nevertheless, they and eventually released premium chapters, though this upset many people it was a calculated move that was an eventuality, the timing was correct, as if they had done this slightly earlier, later or even at the beginning they would've lost too many of their readers to be able to continue their model.
The forum acts as a rage outlet in which the old users fume until eventually resigning to the system or leaving (Which they will be forced to come back when this is the only website left). The new users will either adapt immediately or not at all.
Eventually, they partnered with Gravity Tales and a few other websites and started 'dual hosting' novels, this is, in fact, a very slow process in which they are devouring the websites and tempting the translators and website staff with better terms if they decide to solely work for them.
In the end, they wish to have a website that is the only central gathering website for novel translations, and by extension no matter what they do nor how much money they demand there will be no competition other than a few low key translators & websites that cannot compete in selection, mainstreamness, or chapter releases.
If Qidian hasn't completely devoured Wuxiaworld and Gravity Tales by the next two years, I will be wrong about my speculation, however, if I am right... shrugs who cares? You can either see this as a good or bad thing, but I like to see it as pros and cons. We, the readers of the novel translations community need this change, in my opinion, the translators and editors deserve stable funding too. I'm interested if Qidian is also attempting to merge the writing community as well such as RoyalRoadl, but we'll have to see.
