From what I understand, streaming support for TV anime is basically nonexistent in Japan (although some TV anime start off as web series before getting re-aired on television): TV anime is beholden to TV (including scheduling and broadcast block concerns) there. Since Japan is still considered the most important market for anime (even as the companies that make up production committees slowly begin to recognize the potential profitability of foreign markets & begin making experiments to court them directly), streaming is still sort of an afterthought. It doesn’t touch the pressures of production (which are still built around airing episodes weekly at particular times), nor does it affect how shows are funded, how pitches get approved, or how animation gets done at the ground level. Instead, streaming is just another part of the great river of distribution revenue, along with blu-rays.

The handful of experiments in embracing streaming that we’ve seen show us what an anime industry that took full advantage of it might look like. It might look like Devilman Crybaby: an experimental take on an old franchise with high production values and a short run. Or, it might look like Space Dandy: a full-length series that nevertheless explicitly courts a western audience with a simuldub. Alternately, it might look like ReLife: a fairly conventional series that nevertheless dropped all at once (and because of this, had an early boost in popularity). In other words, it might look a lot like the OVA market — that other place where people who normally work on TV anime suddenly have plenty of budget and few deadlines.

In the same way that the booming domestic OVA market in the 80s nurtured the most important talents of the 90s, it’s possible that streaming could do some good for content. After all, shows based around the moe appeal of particular characters, if they bank on the weekly delay creating demand for home video pre-orders (and if they bank on the last couple episodes having their quality be irrelevant), are not going to be profitable in the same way if whole series get dumped to streaming at once. Ecchi shows that use censorship to sell their own (uncensored) home video releases likewise will need to come up with something extra in order to grab audiences. On the other hand, shows with large casts or complicated stories might become more popular, as they become easier to follow.

This doesn’t necessarily mean that bad habits (like having even-lower-paid south korean animators do the tweening instead of teaching your key animators how to use drawing tablets) will go away. Streaming exclusivity just means that formerly immovable time pressures will be lessened (so, while animators might still be poor, they are less likely to also be burnt out from doing free redraws while the clock ticks on broadcast).