Most likely scenario was a bunch of glitzy consultants came in and pitched the idea to Nippon Honorburu Business execs who thought it looked like garbage but figured if the round-eyes say it's good who are they to argue?

The usual result of failures in the western markets is pulling back and making more standard jap games, which then "unexpectently" make it big in the west (eg Monster Hunter) and they try making more western-focused games again with similar results as this.

Some kind of eternal east-west game dev cycle.

The bigger issue to me is the defining issue of entertainment today, which is also the genesis of GG and this site: the attempt to forcefully change the tastes and habits of the market. Products are being made not based on what people want, but on what the developers think they should want. Everyone thinks they can just throw their customers away and create new ones from magic. it's quite insane, and I think it will be studied in the future much like "tulip mania" today.