Just replaying Metro Exodus and it's just so clear how much of the game's soul is missing compared to previous games because it sought out "broad appeal" and made creative decisions based on that rather than trying to just make a good Metro game.
It begs the question - we've seen so many games sacrificed at the altar of "broad appeal" but has a game ever been made better by stepping out of their niche to try get a better audience?
If I could think of an example, it would be older and a rarity. I'd probably think the thought process was a bit different and it was just happenstance that broad appeal turned into a good formula because games were changing a lot then.
As someone who liked the first two Metro and have read the books, I just played Exodus back in June. It had it's moments, but I really only put the part I didn't like on the open world. It was unnecessary and took me away from the story to go pretend I was playing Fallout 4 for a bit. The gunplay was also pretty lackluster IMO but that's not why I considered the game meh.
Another game series I don't like the broad appeal shift was God of War. It's a little more tricky to talk about because the new God of War was one of my favorite games on PS4 and something I would put down as the gold standard third person open world RPG. While that's great and all, the problem is the old school God of War hack and slash games are now gone forever. There are plenty of good third person RPGs, but if I want new hack and slash I'm almost stuck with Devil May Cry, and I didn't really enjoy it.
There's a low budget game I just tried a demo for called Ultra Age. There's also that Soulstice game that was just announced. Both look meh, but might be fun.
That's where I'll be going at some point I'm sure is to the small devs. Big devs have failed to gain my interest almost at all in the last 2 years. At the moment I manage to go into the past to find what I like. I haven't played enough button mashing slashers to run out of old games yet.