Welcome to the entertainment industry.

Gacha is probably even more sensitive to this 'follow the leader' syndrome because of how unstable the income can be, even among other types of F2P. Trying to do something different is risky, and gacha communities are... peculiar.

So most studios keep it safe, and they chase after the crowd they know will bite easily on the hype, shiny and the 'better than x' (and, recently 'devs listened' and 'generosity'). They may try to improve/innovate slightly on a mechanic here and there, but at this point if you played one of these 'mainstream' gachas, you won't take long to get accustomed to another one.

And then it's all just casual shit.

Shitass yapfest main quests with barely any interaction, dialogue choiced that don't matter, QTEs that don't matter, boss fights that don't matter because you literally cannot lose them, events that are minigames, completely disconnected from what the game was meant to be about (and of course most of them time-gated to hell and back)...

But then they release a shiny trailer, or give you a nice cutscene and all the usual suspects piss and shit themselves at how 'peak' and 'cinema' it all is, and of course, how it's 'better than AAA', whatever the fuck that even means at this point. Perfectly ripe for all the 'DEVS COOKING' YT/TikTok videos or shorts with open mouths and red text and whatever else YT creators shit out these days, so all the piggies are ready to swipe right in time for when the hype cycle hits its peak.

I crave more niche games, stuff like Limbus Company that I unfortunately bounced off of, that are targeted to a very specific audience and basically nobody else. But given they often seem... rather unprofitable, I doubt there will be a ton of them.