I would seriously want to see the numbers between TSR's heyday and WotC, because from what I heard there was a difference of several magnitudes. I admit I could be wrong on this, but that's what I'd heard.
I would too. According to WOTC 5e is brining in the megabucks more than any other edition ever did.
But... I'd still like to see the actual differences between now and TSR's peak.
Not that I don't trust WOTC...
But you're NOT wrong about money being an insulator. This is similar to what has been happening in the film industry; shitty leftard crap gets released, but it's propped up by blockbusters.
Yup, big insulator. Gives them a huge advantage for maintaining their market leader status.
Magic money alone would give WOTC this advantage even if they were no longer part of Hasbro. But being part of Hasbro makes it worse - as now WOTC could even screw up Magic and still get a bail out for D&D.
I am unsurprised that PF was someone's house rules. To this day, though, I am still astonished they didn't go out of their way to try and fix the gaping divide that existed between martials and casters (especially the problems with fighters and monks). Because holy fucking shit Paizo, you had to get all the way to Unchained just to get a decent monk build!
I think that they took the path of least resistance. It was something that they could just layer on top of the OGL...
They essentially doubled down on what the 3.x diehards liked about the system, and it was good enough to beat on the red headed stepchild that was 4e.
A true 3.x fix would have required them to re-write the feats, magic, creatures, and re-imagine the core assumptions of the game from the ground up. OGL as a chassis - but essentially an entirely re-written game. - A much bigger risk for Baizuo...
It's not like people didn't know the fail points of 3.x back then or how they could be fixed. But WOTC certainly wasn't going to do it. And I honestly think Baizuo just didn't have the skills.
...
There are better games out there, but 5e is a decent enough game (one of the best versions of D&D IMO) to keep the brand's popularity. 4e managed to alienate enough D&D fans that some jumped ship to Pathfinder - which was really a version of D&D 3e. But other than that, D&D is the biggest game in town and that's it.
...
And for the market leader that is really all that is needed.
Honestly D&D has never been the "best designed game". But it did get certain things right straight out of the gate. And only really screwed the pooch on those with 4e.
Otherwise D&D's entire legacy has been built on the following equation:
Good Enough + Market Leader = No can Defend.