Its interesting. I think that not everything needs to sell amazingly well when there’s absolutely value in offering variety on a platform, and Nintendo doesn’t offer anything else like Metroid, plus it’s not like the Switch is drowning in first person shooter/adventures. Especially when Nintendo is doing really well, only has a single platform and can afford to keep its options open on as many series as possible. Fire Emblem and Xenoblade and Metroid are at that kinda prestige level where the press and dedicated customer base go crazy over covering them even if they sell a fraction of what Ring Fit Adventure does. Trying out development with third parties like Mercury Steam, Way Forward, Koei Tecmo, Platinum etc has value too.
I don’t know, I think what I see is Nintendo aiming for sustainability with constantly refreshing its IP through either new ideas or partnerships over time, or bringing older IP back around again to surprise people, or not requiring series to break through the usual caps on their genres (Metroid, Xenoblade, Fire Emblem) to get new entries when they have fairly consistent fan bases. It all seems pretty healthy to me rather than expecting phenomenal sales or the IP gets canned.