delericho
Legend
The thing about creative endeavours is that they're all about getting the right people in place and letting them work. Pixar don't make good movies because there's something magical about the name "Pixar"; they make good movies because they have assembled (or developed) a team of creative people, and they let them do their thing.
Of course, corporate environment is a factor, but only as a negative - a bad environment can prevent the 'right' people from doing good work; but a good environment can't turn the 'wrong' people into world-beaters. (Of course, now that I'd said that, no doubt several people will reply with dozens of counter-examples...)
The good news is that being part of a large company doesn't automatically mean you have a bad environment - note that when Disney bought Pixar they took the wise step of not imposing their culture. (In fact, the opposite - they got the Pixar guys to take over at their in-house animation studio, which resulted in "Wreck-it Ralph", a step up on their previous offerings). And, of course, we know how Disney buying Marvel somehow didn't destroy "The Avengers".
So...
There are good adventure writers out there, both 'known' and 'unknown'. All WotC need to do is find them, hire them, and let them work. (Easier said than done, of course.)
They've never been very good at adventures. For 3e they had a few good ones ("Sunless Citadel", "Forge of Fury", "The Sinister Spire"), some that were okay or salvageable, and a significant amount of dross. Much of the best stuff was in Dungeon, but that team was largely lost to Paizo when they gave up the magazines. And the best-regarded adventure of all ("Red Hand of Doom") was done by guys who worked for Paizo - now the big competition.
I was truly saddened by the utter failure of the Delve Format for adventures. Back when it was first discussed (in the then-"Design & Development" column), it was evident that WotC had people who were genuinely putting a lot of thought and effort into how to make, not just new adventures, but better adventures. And Dave Noonan was right - for a particular use, the Delve Format was extremely useful (that is, for the DM who wants to run without any time to prepare).
Of course, for general use, the Delve Format had some very significant, and well-discussed, issues. And, by mandating its use for all adventures all the time, WotC found themselves locked in to producing soulless railroads.
Unfortunately, I fear the consequence of that one, big, failed experiment is that they'll be less inclined to take risks in future. They'll find a couple of things that work (or worked in 1st Ed), and duplicate those endlessly. But, as we well know, endless clones of the same thing never work too well.
I hope I'm wrong about that, I really do. I would very much like to see 5e be supported by a stream of really good adventures, and for those adventures to be new, innovative, and executed well. But you'll forgive me if I don't hold my breath.
