Micah Sweet
Level Up & OSR Enthusiast
Those all seem like profit motives to me. But of course we know there's a disconnect between what 5.5 meant for the designers and what it meant for the suits.IMO....
I think over the past year or two sales were finally beginning to fall a bit for 5e, and seeing that trend was one of the driving forces to reinvigorate the brand.
In addition, there was the drive to focus on D&D beyond and online ventures, and they needed a vehicle that was not out in a printable form (D&D basic) already, so that people would turn to beyond for their free version.