but it's not like Warhammer or Tolkien where people revere the source material
There are plenty of people the revere the settimgs along with the ruleset and still do. At least people really into the game pre-5e.
Not really?
Most D&D settings have limited penetration in the video game world.
Crispy likes Greyhawk and more power to him but when nerds think D&D, they think Forgotten Realms. In fact, when a normal person thinks 'generic RPG setting' or 'tolkienesque' what they actually mean is the Realms, this mother of Abominations. Yet they don't even know it. Showing therefore how weak a name the settings of D&D actually are. Its greatest so dilluted in the general culture of gaming that nobody knows who the fuck Drizzt is. They might get the gist about what drows are but nobody cares about the many books of 'Elminster (who?) fucks another hot magic lady to save the world'.
One might say, 'doesn't a lot of people replay Baldur's Gate 2 with their own special twist of the Kensai-Mage every year?' Yes they do. And while I have to say that there aren't a whole lot of them, it is also besides the point. People don't replay Baldur's Gate 2 for the setting. They replay it because its Baldur's Gate. Planescape is a supremely interesting setting but the name recognition comes from Planescape: Torment's story and from Avellone as its supposed author. Not from Planescape. Not from Forgotten Realms deities being dicks to one another or all mythos being true. That's all just standard.
Pillars of Eternity 2 proves this. The first one rode on expectations set by being an Infinity Engine do over. It didn't really do either Baldur's Gate, Planescape: Torment or Icewind Dale perfectly. It did its own thing and as a property it is going through its own growing pains. Pathfinder: Kingmaker is literally just a Forgotten Realms esque with a recognizeable brand (discount D&D, or so I heard from my sister who really likes writing about gay romances on Critical Role) and it did well enough its studio bought itself from its publisher. It was a mess at release. It did mechanics that normies generally hate, like timers. And like every other game on the market, nearly nobody played it to completion. But its name held your attention long enough that it was bought and that's all that matters.
What guides the normal buyer is that over the years they have been conditioned by the marketing pull of a number of releases. BioWare first, eventually Obsidian, then Larian and CdProjekt. Everyone in the More or Less Generic Fantasy RPG business contributes to this narrative: of a supposed lineage of fantasy games. From the ancient ones, to Baldur's Gate, to Dragon Age to whatever generic fantasy game they played last time. Including ones that aren't even set in the Realms, like anything involving Pathfinder, and those that have little or nothing to do with them, like anything high fantasy really.
Its Fantasy. It has 'Dungeons and Dragons' on it, which appeared on Stranger Things or The Big Bang Theory. I recognize it as a cultural artifact of the modern world. And its just 60 dollars, there I bought it and its now on the backlog of things I'll never play. Its just that simple. Creepy nerds like us only serve to do mouth to mouth marketing. We are useful. But we are not the reason it succeeds or dies.
TLDR everything is a sham. nobody matters. anything can sell as long as the names involved are recognizeable. and down here it ain't forgotten realms bucko. its young sheldon from big bang theory saying 'my wizard casts magic missile at the darkness, bazinga'.
