We aim to clarify the experimentally observed near-degeneracy and decay patterns of the isospin, $I=1$, hidden-bottom tetraquarks $Z_b(10610)$ and $Z_b(10650)$ with quantum numbers $J^{P}=1^{+}$. We refer to them as $Z_b$ and $Z_b^'$, respectively. In particular, we find first evidence that the suppression of the decay of $Z_b^'$ to $B\bar{B^*}$ can be understood in the context of the Born–Oppenheimer Effective Field Theory (BOEFT). BOEFT enables writing both $Z_b$ and $Z_b^'$ as superpositions of $Z_1$ and $Z_2$ tetraquark configurations. This decomposition naturally relates the decay patterns of $Z_b$ and $Z_b^'$ to the degeneracy of the light degrees of freedom associated with $Z_1$ and $Z_2$ tetraquarks, {\it i.e.,} $1^{--}$and $0^{-+}$ adjoint mesons, respectively. By calculating the adjoint meson correlators within the framework of lattice QCD, we get good indications that these adjoint mesons are degenerate.