(This also goes for studio meddling too, which is just suits trying to guess what the public/investors want)

This happens so often in all media, not just gaming, to the point I wonder why no one has caught on. Sometimes its good to just fuck around and make something you like and just hope that the public like it. Sure, a lot of the time it doesn't work out, but 90% of the time the biggest lasting impacts in media come from something people thought wouldn't do well with the public.

Studios thought Jaws would fail.

They also thought Star Wars would fail because at the time SciFi was considered B grade

Game Freak never thought they would get to make more than one Pokémon game. When they were localizing it for the US they thought about reskinning it into a baseball game to appeal to American kids

Same goes for Final Fantasy. They thought they were only going to make one. That's why it's called Final Fantasy.

For the love of god, just let creatives fuck around. At least that way if they make trash, it's at least earnest trash from the heart.

Do not listen to fans