Sometimes it's also because budgets come from different places - especially at big corps. Hiring new full time ongoing employee? HR/Staff budget. Contractor? could come from the specific project's budget (already budgeted); or marketing, or whatever.
Nah, WotC brings in outside consultants for books all the time: Tracy Hickman was brought in as a consultant on Curse of Strahd (a lot of the expansion material was Chris Peekins wxpanding on Hickman's info on hia homw games), and Pendleton Ward (creator of Adventure Time) for Tomb of Annhilation, which co tribute to some of the deranged nature of the jungle crawl.
With the consultants, as opposed a freelance writer or artist, WotC tends to mean they brought in an outsider to the brainstorming and initial design phase for a week or two of bouncing ideas and doing concept work, not actually writing.
This makes sense considering that he co-wrote the initial I6: Ravenloft module
WotC should've went for the trifecta and let Joe Maganiello have a crack at it too
They brought Maganiello in for Descent into Avernus, I believe, which is why his PC and his players from his table are NPCs in Tiamats court.
I don't know. We've had decades of Weis and Greenwood. I'm interested in seeing what new ideas comes with new blood.
