No, my guess is really that when it comes down to the 12th gen. auditions, the timing was off. After they announced the audition in the beginning of this year, Morning Musume's popularity suddenly took off, against all expectations. There are some talented girls among the finalists with a lot of potential, who would have definitely added something to MM. But having a bunch of new girls around will only slow MM down at the moment. If things had been different for the group at the moment, Ruru would have probably gotten in. But yeah, this is just my guess.
I also think the situation was more or less like what you said. Tsunku's 12 gen audition announcement was so sudden. It came out a week after the 12th gen audition previews came out on Helo Station. Whats more significant was that the announcement came out a day after Momusu's Music Station appearance which was a huge success and got attention from alot of media people. As Momusu was promoting heavily the 10 member Morning Musume, it would be counter productive to suddenly add new girls. So Tsunku had to make a decision to stop the 12th gen audition.
TRUE AND TRUE I think the same!!! and I see a lot of videos of ruru and really we need more talent girls on MM u.u the current are cute BUT I HOPE 12th gen add to ruru and Hirona in MM BUT IT¨S JUST MY DREAM
Mine too >3>