For the record I've never read a Sanderson novel, but I've heard they were rather socially conservative for the most part. No sex, no modern politics, no R-rated scenes. Moderate T for Teen level content.
Sanderson has also been pushing for Hollywood deals for a long time, but had no luck.
The most recent book suddenly had homos and non-binary and all that stuff. Then boom, TV deal signed.
Thoughts?
The whole "schtick" of Stormlight is that almost all of the main characters are broken in some way. That's integral to how the magic system works.
The last 2 books have had more "cringe" moments than any other pieces of Sanderson's writing.
I think the real reason is that his longtime editor, Moshe Feder, left. Moshe had edited I believe every single Mistborn and most of the other Tor books. Oathbringer (Stormlight book 3) was the last book Moshe worked on.
I don't think it's a coincidence that books 4 and 5 were far weaker. Sanderson does this whole "alpha readers" and "beta readers" feedback groups, and with a strong and good editor in place, that's manageable. Without a strong guiding hand, it's easy to get bullied around by shitty superfans.