Already acknowledged the aspects in the 2nd paragraph so why restate them?
You cannot isolate recent events and then dismiss a root cause saying it does not explain everything.
The same social habits that produced support for Ayub, Bhutto, and later PTI are part of the same pattern, not separate ones. Even Jinnah had to work within that reality and, in practice, accept mass politics as it evolved.
Bhutto also had real educated and middle class support, not just rural crowds. Ayub too had an early reformist image and attracted educated backing before the fallout set in. Then with PTI, the middle class mobilized strongly as well, but Pakistan’s historically thin middle class, weak civic culture, and the tendency of many people to stop at symbolic effort meant that support was always vulnerable to disappointment.
Once IK's compromises became visible, the same crowd that elevated him also helped cool the wave.
If anything, it was the impending bogey of return of the status quo under PDM and Khan's own rhetoric with victimhood similar to how Bhutto and everyone else before him "Mujhe kyun nikala" put out at different levels of resonance - actually boosted his popularity at the polls. Then what happened after May's events? Where are the jiyalas? PPPP can still gather more even with suppression than PTI can.
I mean if he could - where are they? its been 4 years the man is in jail and no masses are storming Adiala or parliament nor has KPK descended into full civil war yet for just IK. Because the state(in its part of the cycle and elitist tilt) did what it does suppression, negotiations, partial acceptance, policing, communication controls, and selective concessions.
Where are these "fantastical" current events that have dismissed the long standing root causes?
Instead, there are more visible and AJK is a prime example - long running structure of elite capture, weak accountability, and a governance setup that many residents see as remote, over administered, and unresponsive.
PTI can provide that movement a voice but CANNOT change the system because they are borne of it and the state is running a very similar playbook BECAUSE that is all it knows how to do.
Nothing new in that nor some "recent" events that would suggest that Pakistan's Biryani is now different because now the masala is being made in factories and sold in packets - its still Biryani and Pakistanis are ok with it.