You make a fair point when you say Jon not being present would make the show different. However the show does have Jon, so saying that hypothetically it would be just as entertaining is a pointless exercise, as that’s not what the show is at this point. If you believe the producers can make the show entertaining without Jon present that’s also fine, but these producers are fairly incompetent. Example below.
Throughout all of bedroom two after Jon was kicked out there was very little entertainment value, and what entertainment there was I would argue was not nearly as enjoyable as when he was present. This is actually a perfect hypothetical for you saying that the show holds back for the jontent cycle out of fear of breaking it. Jon is out of the room and not interacting, he goes to sleep while all the others are awake. Interacting with the fish at this point wouldn’t break the cycle as the cycle isn’t in motion. And yet the producers/sharks barely do anything with that. In fact they actively turn off the constant alarm droning despite it making the fish uncomfortable. This isn’t because of Jon, this is because the producers are shit at their job.
You can’t say they did that out of fear for breaking the jontent cycle because he was clearly not present. You also state that if Jon wasn’t present the roll of viewer action regarding the fish would be more intense, and I don’t understand how this is the case. If Jon wasn’t present it’s not like this would truly turn into hell house. As if Jon is preventing all hell from breaking loose. You could argue that maybe things are taken easy on Jon himself, but as for the other fish that has no effect on them whatsoever.
It’s just odd that you assume there would be more fish toys, chat interactions, and contestant interaction. There’s simply no evidence for that. If Jon was gone does that mean tts would’ve been on far more often during the days it wasn’t? Maybe people would be allowed to slur over tts? Would the fish toys be active earlier? Is hellhouse not hellhouse simply because Jon? Maybe Jet only gave the pizza party just to calm Jon down, and if Jon wasn’t there he would’ve told all the fish to suck it up and go to bed.
There have been plenty of chat and fish interactions and while some have been entertaining they’re nothing compared to Jontent. What’d we get from tts so far? A drunken Letty rant about porn, Vance screaming then going back to doing nothing, constant Josie and Damiel dick sucking, and some awkward silences. The idea that this would somehow change without Jon is simply untrue. Pay piggies are gonna provide shit content.
The truth is the crew has been babying ALL of the fish from the start. That’s not because of Jon, it’s because the producers don’t want to blow their load and scare everyone off early. It also seems that your argument is that Jon is too entertaining, and that the show would somehow be better if it was less entertaining because the producers would find a way to make up for it. Again, maybe this is true, but we have absolutely no way of knowing this at all. If anything we should assume it would be far less entertaining with such an important character not present.
There have been times where Jon isn’t in a room for multiple hours while other fish are, and unlike the statement you’ve made saying that this would be a time where the fish would be plotting and scheming to stave off boredom it’s usually filled with boring conversation, drumming, harmonica sounds (previously), pointless improv (previously), or another person trying to fill Jon’s gap by screaming randomly with none of the passion or likability (see Damiel).
I would go as far as to argue that most scheming has taken place because of Jon. The idea of Letty being a backstabber largely originates from her being close to Jon while simultaneously talking to other fish about sabotaging him and or distancing herself from him. This is one of the most interesting conflicts in the show, as Letty has shown she cares for Jon, yet also wants to win, making for a conflicting choice of betrayal or no money.
Vance being a pussy originates largely from him hating on Jon behind closed doors with other fish but caving to him in his presence. This not only makes for some of the funniest content in the show, because a literal retard is jogging a dude without realizing he hates him, but makes Vance far more interesting than he’d be without that disdain he holds for Jon.
I don’t think I really have to mention Damiel because we already know he was Jon’s first antagonist, but that entire fight that happened between them, the drama of him leaving the show, and the “love to hate him” type attitude in this thread I would argue is largely because Jon broke him the one night. What does Damiel do without Jon to antagonize and scheme against? He reads a comic and talks like a chigger. Great content.
The only real time we’ve seen the hogs do something other than sleep or eat was when Jon tried to steal their baby. They then enetered a huge screaming match and spent a very large amount of time ranting about the whole event after. It was interesting enough for the crew to bring cameras out and record the whole incident. And it was easily the peak of what the hogs have done entertainment wise so far.
I’m going to stop here because I’ve written enough, but I could go on. I left out two other fish from the roster, and I haven’t even described the content Jon has provided through contests or Goldstriker. Every reality show has the main cast that it’s centered around, Jon just so happened to be that cast member. Instead of complaining that he’s entertaining maybe you should enjoy what he does for the show as a whole.