Lots of reasons why this is IMO, but most of all: the amount of gameplay altering agency expressed through say just the ship flying loop is almost custom-built to break teams. Sure, you can lose in COD because your teammates keep dying, but it doesn't alter YOUR gameplay.
Really good thoughts! I agree, and I am concerned about what the gaming landscape looks like in 5 years because of all of the changes happening with the business today... can designers and devs even be rewarded for doing great work? Seems more like a crapshoot than a plan :(
To be fair, it looks like the folks at DICE are about to be rewarded for doing great work on BF6, but yeah, that's a "more of the same" kind of game. I'll point to things like Helldivers 2 for a semi-recent example of a novel game doing well, but it's all indie and AA.
That is to say, in Wildgate, what options you have available to you, how combat is or isn't joined, what strictures exist on your behavior (do I need to go repair? Can I get allies to join me on this POI?) depends on ally behavior. This makes people dislike the captain and makes no one want to fly.
So long story short, I think the major new innovation they brought might be a net negative for less coordinated play. If you're playing with your friends on voicechat it's probably a blast. If you're playing with randos, it's the worst. Games need to support play with randos to survive.