I think a great example of what 343 should have done is treyarch taking over COD from infinity ward. They’ve converted infinity ward’s COD into a behemoth. They maintained what worked. They knew living upto IW’s standards wouldn’t work. They split the COD brand up to MW, BlackOps & the World War stuff, to mitigate any creative risks they could now take. This allowed them to grow COD including going into newer platform & modes e.g. Warzone.
I know it’s not an apples to apples comparison, but it does show how management of a studio is as important as the creative vision. 343 clearly lacked both.
Your loss