Time will tell what truly went wrong, but it is really hard not to give Sawyer the bulk of the blame IMO.
The Codex: huh, Deadfire is pretty good actually, imagine that
Also the Codex: but it's Sawyer's fault if it flops
Sorry my droogs but that doesn't fly. Apart from the usual Obsidian day-1 flakiness this is a solid product, better in most ways than P1 which was a resounding success despite being just this side of a clusterfuck at 1.0. It's also remarkable in that it's not dumbed down from P1* while at the same time having clearly more mainstream appeal.
If it flops it's not Josh's fault or indeed anyone's involved with making the actual product. Point the finger at marketing.
*On balance, there's a bit of dumbing down here and there but also a quite a bit of smartening up in other areas.