The gameplay itself is good, as are the environments and (somewhat unexpectedly) the writing for a lot of the stuff that isn't the main quests, so I doubt Gearbox made any less than they expected on it, but as long as Pitchford owns the studio I can't imagine the series improving on the plot/writing. If they hadn't managed to hit it big with the first two games the studio would be shuttered by now, as basically everything else they've worked on (as far as I'm aware) has been a moderate success at best.