This might be believable if this is how it worked for any other well received game.
Lets look at the youtube viewership for PP and competitors in the past month:
Phoenix Point 2.9k views for the most popular video this month
Xcom Chimera squad 273k views for the most popular video this month
Xcom 2 37k views for the first popular video I could find in between all the Chimera squad vids
X-com: UFO Defense 487 views for the most popular video this month, 7.6k views for the most popular video in the past year
Xenonauts 6k views for the most popular video this month
Again we have Xenonauts, an x-com clone out-preforming PP by a factor of two. Even the 25 year old UFO:defense is outpreforming if you open up the time frame a little bit.
Now lets take the claim that there actually exists a silent majority out there that can only be seen by the team’s data collection tools as on it’s face true. Are they posting good reviews? No. Are they posting fun AARs? No. Are they making tons of fan art? No. Are they making youtube videos? Maybe, but they’re not gaining any traction.
If PP wants to be a massive hit it’s obvious that somehow the customer base needs to grow. This silent majority doesn’t seem to be doing it. Everywhere I look I see 90% of the comments are “the game is currently flawed, but maybe I’ll give it another chance in a year if I hear good things”. Anyone outside of this silent majority is only hearing this. Maybe this silent majority will spread things by in-person word of mouth? Seems like a stretch, particularly with the corona-virus lock downs that are forcing most people to communicate online where, again, most of the feedback is bad, but at least lenient.
The fear seems to be: “let’s not let the hardcore xcom players alienate everyone from the game”.
I submit that there might be another fear that the devs need to be even more worried about: “are the hardcore PP purists alienating everyone from the game?”