They do. Anything merchandise-driven or voice-acted comes from their pocket. While the talents see a modicum of money from them, those who get featured on them more frequently, specially in situations like Christmas, Valentine's Day, White Day, etc, cumulatively end up seeing more money. That's also why people raised a stink over Elira: she's been featured on every major voice acting gig and most of the merchandise-driven ones despite not being even top 5 at EN - and with that, even if merchandise profit is small, she does a good profit in bulk, since she's always being featured. Contrast: Pomu was the most popular girl at NijiEN and got featured in those projects a grand total of... 3 times.
I mean, this is likely company-mandated. I'd imagine Ike will follow in the following weeks. Enna and Millie too if it ends up raising too much of a stink. This is all coordinated: Nijisanji's Q4 2024 financial report is due next month and they're desperately trying to improve their numbers in any way possible before it hits, cuz the next two reports due the next six months will encapsulate everything from the Selen fiasco to the current scenario - and the shareholders will NOT be happy. Just consider: in about 3 months Anycolor's stocks dropped so much Cover is about to overtake them by literally doing nothing specific. While having a third of their talent number. While investing in infrastructure and personnel almost five-fold.