It looks more like Hasbro is desperate for that nostalgic traditional brand money but old school board gamers and old school D&D fans are hard to please.Something doesn't quite add up. Throw in the various PR gaffes and catastrophes in the last year or so, the sudden and unexpected resignation of the head of WotC, and it suggests a brand in decline, or at least a corporation looking to stop the string of negative news by getting back to basics and shutting up whomever keeps generating more bad news. I don't have enough pieces of the puzzle yet (nor am I interested enough in chasing them down) to know what's going on, but I think the prevailing narrative about sales and the market and who's playing and more importantly who's buying D&D products gives off enough red flags to look like a whole freaking communist parade.
I also suspect that the online energy around the OSR might cause it to punch above its weight in terms of perception of their importance, but somehow catering to them or trying to woo them back to the fold seems to have been an on again off again theme with D&D.
Whereas the young'ns are buying video games by the digital truckload.
However the heads can't get over the bookshelves of the old school players and are salivating over their money.
They trying to sell Venca when D&D waifus and husbandos and D&D Grand Strategy would print money.