Civ VII is a failure of market research for exactly that reason. I don’t even think the shifting cultures in Humankind is necessarily a flaw; it’s just different. But it’s very clear Civ players hated it, and a single trip down Humankind’s Steam reviews makes that crystal clear, so when I saw Civ VII was copying that feature my immediate response was “dumb asses, this is gomna fail.”

Apparently it was profitable though. Somehow. And the fact that its profitability was considered news-worthy says a lot.