yes, they also lied about bighit being a very poor company
they were not on the big 3 but Bang Pedo worked for JYP and he already had a lot of conections
and they also filmed variety shows like "american hustle life" that was filmed in the USA with a bunch of famous rappers. so they invested a lot of money on it. Even before BT5 became big
Their early clothing was poor but the production value of their music and the show they made weren't. Compare them to SHINe3. They had nicer clothes but the places they were filmed in weren't expensive. Btees was taking trips to Thailand, Dubai, Chicago, Los Angeles, and other places as nugus. Shine3's show pairing them with noonas was different. Taemin was walking around places that looked less like Seoul and more like a third world country. Contrast that to fourth gen groups and the shows they film.
They weaponized poverty to make fans take their underdog image and eat it up. Handmade clothes. Kidnapped by black people. Oh no. Fed chicken breasts and no rice while their surrounded by men who were missing no meals? They wanted to make sure sasaengs didn't get too close
I'm glad the fans have dropped this underdog image, but it still comes back up like a broken game of hungry hungry hippos.