How many players of any type actually spend $50 on a book every couple of months? Wizards does not rely on any expectation of across-the-board sales for any of their D&D products, because they know every player's needs are different and there are almost none who want/need to own every single piece of product. WotC knows they are lucky if they get a single book out of any one person every year. So getting so far into the weeds with figuring out and worrying about what "veteran" players may or may not be buying is a waste of their time.I'm pretty confident that Wizards would much rather have veteran fans keep buying $50 books every few months, than the rare $10ish PDF, or nothing at all. Hence bits like the Easter eggs in Witchlight. If they sense that a significant number of veteran fans are abandoning ship, I think that trend would matter very much to them...
Instead... and this came right out of Mike Mearls' mouth way back when... the D&D team just wants people to play D&D. What type of D&D doesn't matter. Because people who play D&D and enjoy D&D and love D&D (of any type) will pass that love onto other people, who hopefully will also play D&D and enjoy D&D and love D&D. And many of those people might very well be ones who try 5E and then spend that $50 on a book occasionally. Heck... I believe he even said they don't even care if people are playing D&D at all, if some are playing other RPGs. Because every person who gets involved in the hobby is just one more of a larger and larger group of folks who will get together and enjoy it... and that rising ocean rises all of the boats (including D&D 5E, the product they are currently selling.)
So at this point I do not believe anyone on the D&D team is concerned about any individual player and what they may or may not want for their product. Instead... they are looking at things in their books that they have come the conclusion they no longer feel comfortable with including... and they are taking them out. And if there are some people for whom it's a bridge too far... then they'll happily give up that person's occasional $50 a year if it means they make themselves and more other people happy.