Season 4's premise is fishtank meta. Jet was in site chat early in the season complaining about the cast being "meta soi" in reference to talking about things that went wrong other seasons, r9k talk, preseason drama etc. but this was hinting at the type of people selected. It is in the season 1 house as a way to; A. humiliate the fish by showing how big of losers they are compared to the first cast B. fuck with the audience by redoing the first season because that's a common suggestion by retards and C. strip things back to basic shapes as a backdrop for the plotline.

The STOX are there to manipulate the fish and make fun of them, to show how vapid and narcissistic they are by putting a constantly ticking number to how much the audience likes them so their egos can be inflated further than any contestants previously. They're also a bit to further the illusion of legal issues, how they could get in serious trouble if they refer to the fake stocks by the wrong names. It's a commercialized, watered down season that's super by-the-numbers and as many have pointed out feels like an absurd parody of fishtank that's literally JUST for money going by how Sam is acting. It is part of his character this season.

When Jet says "we're really taking the gloves off" it's foreshadowing the peek we're going to get at a kayfabe deterioration of a season, we're gonna see everything go to shit like season 3 but it'll be fake. They've taken the recurring real-life legal issues they face every season and turned it into the show. Basically, I think what Jet or Sam was thinking when conceptualizing the premise was that every time they do a season expecting things to go smoothly it never turns out that way, so they're flipping it and forcing the season to fall apart. I think there's going to be a jail week, there's going to be actors pretending to be police, lawyers, even the trailer was hinting at this by the final shot with a car speeding on the highway.