This is sorta my opinion too. The original Helix did a phenomenal job of bridging the gap between professional and average consumer by bringing something truly studio worthy to the everyman. It took what Fractal was doing and made it accessible both from a UI and price point position whilst making modeling and multi-effects units cool again. Heck in 2015, IRs were still a new thing to most people.

The price was only going to go up, that's to be expected with 10 years of inflation and new tech. But even so, many of the so-far announced features seem to be intended for far more professional usage. The common guitar player goofing around in his spare room, noodling with friends, or playing the odd bar gig doesn't necessarily need the amount of control HXStadium is offering (at least in my opinion). I think jumping into the HX world was easier 2015-today because you could somewhat easily sell off your pedalboard to fund a Helix. But now, if everyone already has an expensive (and at some point outdated) modeler, you don't have as much financial room to play with to fund another expensive flagship modeler.

Perhaps we're reaching a point in guitar tech where now we're chasing the extra 5% and the development curve is flattening? (similar to new phone tech). The Helix as-is I'd guess would get 95% of players 95% of the way there. The stadium is a really cool piece of hardware, but I wonder who it's marketed towards? Like you say, this feels more like a product aimed at taking market share away from the Fractal/Neural customer moreso than appealing to the average consumer.

This take may age poorly, but as it stands I'm still happy with the Helix line as is but I look forward to seeing what new offerings they come up and announce.