What makes you think fracking is not economically viable? The majority of the wells drilled in the US (by a large margin) are fracked. Fracking is very much an economical method for oil extraction right now, and is still viable at ~$50/barrel.
Like this $9.5 billion deal the other day between Shell and Conoco. Wildcatters can't compete at these prices for the most part. They can't afford the real-estate now (in the early days when the industry was asleep and or skeptical they could).
https://www.shell.com/media/news-and-media-releases/2021/she...
The majors bring a more traditional, disciplined approach to pursuing cut-throat production competition or not and have a more consistent, less volatile schedule for capital investment. They're not as sensitive to medium size moves in oil prices when it comes to changing plans.