I say, no, I don't see any reason why Paizo couldn't have made a successor to their Pathfinder game that at the very least made a token effort to take those two factoids into account.
Heh, at the risk of cross referencing threads.... I think the "like 4E" thing is a big factor here.
Now, I'll repeat my position that PF2E is UNLIKE 4E in a lot more ways than it is LIKE 4E. In my opinion, it is a weak analysis to say that PF2E is like 4E.
BUT...
I strongly believe that the roots of 4E and the roots of PF2E both being reaction to the 3X core system can't be denied.
And this is a squeaky wheel gets the grease kind of thing. The people who disliked the balance issues (bugs for some, features for others, but certainly bugs for those squeaking) were LOUD and constantly repeating. I'm sure the design teams in both cases had those complaints ringing in their ears eternally.
I won't suggest that they were not completely fair and honest concerns for some people. But I will say that the significant number of players who had no problem with these issues (ranging from "its a feature" to "whatever") didn't go around posting how awesome it was ever other day. People don't work that way. So after literally a DECADE in the Paizo case, this water torture had an effect.
The mentality that "our next game will be a balanced as any game in the history of the universe" mindset seems practically overwhelming.
They went very different directions once that foundation was set. But that foundation itself, very much the same.
And it crushed their chance for the "token effort" you speak of. I truly think they were so saturated in the vocal minority eternal drone that they had no idea it was happening. I think they were shocked that so many of their old fans were so disappointed.