Even in things as controlled as building airplanes, issues happen. I'm going to assume that it slipped thru the cracks and they are putting more process in place to make sure more don't. But, every thing like this costs money and tends to have effects on product (in every industry). There are limits to how far any company can do to eliminate error.....even, as I said, in building airplanes.
I agree.
I also think that this doesn't necessarily mean that we the consumers are going to eat the dividends via higher-priced books per page (whether that be straight-up higher prices or shorter books in overall page numbers).
It could just as well be that WotC will say, hey look at all the sales we made for Magic 30th Anniversary this year - we can make up for some of the costs we had to spend on D&D book production. And D&D 50th in 2024 will help us make up some of those costs too.
Or cutting out middlemen could help them make up the difference - you see both the Magic and D&D teams really making a push now for direct-to-consumer online sales of physical products. I'm still going to support my FLGS, but consumer trends are definitely pushing towards cutting out the distributors to some extent (the FLGS won't be entirely eliminated since they're a source of growth via word of mouth and play locations, and WotC has first-hand experience of the problems of trying to run their own physical stores back in the 90s and early 00s). During Covid shutdowns, Magic and D&D sales still went strong, despite production delays of their products. Online sales are a big part of that.
So they'll find ways to make the money up.
Overall, D&D is a LOT cheaper to make than Magic, and while it earns a lot, it earns a lot less than Magic too. It's growing, though, and Hasbro sees WotC as a core pillar of their business. I don't think Hasbro is particularly put out by this increase expenditure. It's a worthwhile investment, especially since if they didn't do it, they could be losing customers disgruntled by racist caricatures and half-donkey'd PR cover-ups. They're putting their money where their mouth is.