I think this is also part of why there’s been such weirdly resilient misrepresentation of games like Star Citizen, from its very inception to this day – publishers know that if these kinds of projects succeed, it raises the bar.

Raising the bar is great to the devs themselves who love doing new stuff, implementing new ideas and changing formulas etc. when they are given the time and resources to do that. Publishers hate it because it means you can’t just pump out the same old tired, formulaic reskins of games and expect everyone to pay a premium.