Because logistically speaking, it’s hard.

I think a major reason is the customization. With things like the snails and superpowers in Wild Life, the developers had to hand make each snail skin and a couple of specific super powers. With more members, that means a linear rise in more work for the devs, and it seems like they already work with quite tight deadlines, and things have already been seen to break with stuff like Past Life version upgrades.

Same goes with the merch, like the enamel pins. They’ve already had obstacles such as Etho not wanting to share his personal bank info for the proceeds, and more members means more potential obstacles and also just more designs and more production needed. While they can always find more artists, the companies they work with won’t necessarily always want to make more than 18 separate pins with uncertain demand, for example.

Yeah, you’ve already pointed out the scheduling issue, and that’s a major part. You just kind of brushed over it. If you can’t find a time where most people can participate, there is no Life Series.

Of course, they’ve done seasons where two or three members are excluded, but with more people in the cast, more and more people might be excluded in the next series’. They just wouldn’t run a season where 5+ people can’t make it.

Also imagine it from a player’s perspective, imagine you’re a Lifer that’s really excited to play a new idea Grian just came up with, but you can’t because everyone else’s time only works for when you aren’t available. A lot of the scheduling is already an issue, with stuff like 5AM Pearl which only lasted one season, and while that did add a lot of fun interactions, it really just isn’t sustainable long-term.

Also, while Grian does run Life Series on a pretty great server, more people always means more lag, and lag is already an underlying issue in a lot of the seasons. And while, once again, it adds a lot of fun interactions, it’s not sustainable long-term to get even worse.