As a Blink and Blackjack, the truth of the matter is Blackpink and 2ne1 are 2 parts of the same thing. Everything YG would have done or should have done with 2ne1, they corrected it with Blackpink.
I kind of laughed (in a good way) when they announced that YG new gg had a maknae main dancer and the main rapper that can also sing. (Minzy/Lisa, CL/Jennie)

YG as a company didn't have the connections or the recourses at that time to really push into the western market in any significant way. The western market also wasn't ready for kpop, as can be seen by the attempts and lackluster results of JYP and SM.

There's also YouTube and reaction channels in particular taking off at this point. There's also D4 and BIGBang going to the army, creating a main act void in YG.