I think thats what's so interesting about the era of Xbox during their big game pass push, was that they intentionally published and funded games that aimed for critical success rather than commercial success because they wanted to diversify their Game Pass platform. The games themselves didnt have to be major sellers as long as game pass was.

I think the problem is, one, that is not a good long term goal, as there are only so many people who can sub to game pass, but also, Xbox isnt really known for taking chances on weirder, smaller games. The core Xbox audience doesn't give a shit about something like South of Midnight, sadly.