I’ve been thinking about how a lot of her style, music taste, cultural references, sociopolitical intellect etc seems stuck in a bit of an early-2000s time warp and I think I have realised why.
She talked about her internet trolling as early as her X Factor days (2011). Presumably, she led a pretty sheltered online life after that to protect herself from the mean comments and we know that she eventually deleted Twitter etc.
People of her generation have effectively lived their lives and broadened their horizons through the internet over the last 20 years. She’s been AWOL for over half of that.
Basically, Jesy Nelson has been in a cultural coma for the last 10+ years and, as a solo artist, her exile from internet culture is now laid bare for all to see. What seem like really absurd choices are actually the last time she was fully integrated in pop culture - the 2000s period leading up to her 2011 X Factor era.