BD is the exception that proved a lot of SE's rules. It innovated a lot of the traditional JRPG elements but was not labeled with one of SE's big franchise names, and so they didn't expect it to sell much. Its success surprised them but it shouldn't have. It was a great game that blended tradition and modernization in the genre, and did it organically without checking off a bunch of boxes that they pieced together through market research. Yet like you said it didn't sell 10 million copies. So how can they expect their big franchises to do that when those don't have that blend of cohesive design and innovation that BD had (at least until the very end of that game)?