Nao-kun

Putting her in J=J is the most sensible option by far.

Going solo makes no sense (not a single ex H!P / 48G / Stardust idol has managed a lasting and successful solo career).

TF, MM and Angerme don't really need her.

No one remembers how many O's is the hot new thing, so not worth the risk of associating it with KF.

A new group? It would be stupid to take the focus away from how many O's so soon.

Some girls will also simply keep auditioning until they get in somewhere, so you can't take applicant numbers as gospel as some of the girls will have been counted more than once.

That being said, the crypticness isn't doing them any favors at all

They have no one to blame but themselves, if Yui is out temporarily (or permanently) and they bring in a replacement that still only gets us to three, not 7 as in the bs lore excuses they made up, why bring in two replacements? Why say nothing until after the fact? Why remain cryptic even after it is official that Yui is only temporarily gone? Why purge the website? 

Its like they wanted the chaos they got.

No, they should let him remain as producer but give the managerial duties on to someone else.

Should have happened a long time ago, I mean it was fine to let him run wild back when BM was just a funny little experiment on the side, but when you try to conquer the world...

This is a damage control statement, nothing more nothing less.

Yes, that they allowed 5B to say something certainly is damage control.

But:

They threw in a reference to that stupid Seven blah blah lore thing

The Lore book comes out in Oct

The Japanese tour starts in Oct...

Are they trying to hint that they won't reveal the truth until then?