After years of epic flops, Katy's tried to recreate exactly how she was in her 2010 heyday: boobs, sequins, Dr Luke songs, glossy black hair, and cartoony props.
Back then, Lady Gaga was getting praise for being groundbreakingly "creative" when really she was churning out the most outlandish gimmicks she could think of for attention, and acting like it was high art.
A lot of others jumped on board the gimmick trend including Katy Perry and Nicki Minaj. Katy's own spin on this was that her gimmicks and props were humorous.
Part of the appeal was mild shock value of something random and weird, but shock value always has a limited shelf life. (By 2011 it was starting to get old, which is why Adele blew up that year with her understated style and focus on the talent, whereas Gaga failed to recreate her 2009 peak.)
Katy is trying to go back to 2009-2011, but gimmicks aren't interesting any more and humour has moved on, as have trends in feminism. Her attempt to be "on-the-nose" and ironic with her female empowerment video just seems crass and the joke doesn't really land.
It's much easier to be cancelled now and there is guilt by association hence Dr Luke being poison, making the video look even worse. The songs are mediocre, which to be honest I think is the same as some of her earlier ones, but her fans carried her then. She doesn't have enough committed fans to carry her now.
Katie tried to reinvent herself for the Witness era in 2017 and it didn't go well. She nearly got it: she tried to appeal to popular culture, and to drag culture which was blowing up. But she didn't get her image right, with the public not liking her frumpy bleached short hairdo. Also, she was trying to be "woke" (i.e. a sanctimonious leftist), which clashed with her usual humour and spoiled it all.
I can see why she's decided that the public are not here for anything "different" from her and should just go back to exactly how she was when she was popular. But times have changed too much for that. She's actually spoiling a future career as a successful legacy artist.