Tony Vargas
Legend
They needn't be. Depends on how close "what one thinks the best play experience" potentially might be is to what the market turns out to demand, at the moment.You act as if being popular and providing what one thinks the best play experience would be are mutually exclusive... they aren't.
If the market demands banging your head against a brick wall, and that's not your idea of a fine play experience, they're mutually exclusive. There's no accounting for taste.
...but...
Jumping on the 5e bandwagon wouldn't be producing a game to be popular, it'd be producing supplements for a game that's already popular - and could even be producing said supplements /with the hope of providing the best play experience/ possible under that game.As long as it doesn't tank the company, I'm glad they didn't. We already have one company producing a game to be popular; I'd rather they take their best shot at what they think the best play experience would be, even if it doesn't quite get there.