I just read through the thread, and I thought this was the most interesting comment.
1. Games always blame poor marketing.
2. Maybe. However, Pillars benefited from being in the initial wave of Kickstarters, so I don't think all 40,000 would have come back.
3. This argument would hold more water if the game wasn't already going to an incredibly narrow demographic.
4. Yeah, who likes pirates? Oh, everyone.
5. Why didn't this affect the first Pillars? Sure it probably would have increased sales, maybe even to the point where it paid for itself, but there have been plenty of successful single-player games. Not buying it.
6. Sure, maybe.
7. Why is this last? and why is main story last? If 500k+ will buy a game that looks like Undertale for the story, maybe that's a sign that plot is actually pretty damn important, and this game didn't have one.
Here's my take on it. In some ways it just felt like there was a lack of ambition from the start. The kickstarter was more about chasing other games (full VO!, character portraits! Romance! Intelligent Sword!) than actually adding interesting features to Deadfire. You can see this in the pointless Fulvano's voyage, no new races, no new classes. The enemy creature design also felt uninspired, except in the DLC. The new monsters were eoten (what do they offer that ogres don't), fire giants (ok, but pretty bog standard), Naga (ok, but certainly nothing new), Exploding zombies (fun game change, but what year is this?), Titans (pretty cool), and grub generators (added neat tactics to combat, but old). The plot felt superfluous because I don't know if they ever thought of a story this game had to tell; similarly, the main characters didn't need to be on your ship. Most times Eder and Pallegina felt like the only ones who belonged (maybe Fassina & Xoti of the new characters, and Xoti is terrible). Similarly, there aren't many fights outside of the DLC that are actually that interesting: flooded street, caves under the city, gunpowder cave, druid's grove, and maybe vampire cave.
It's a shame, because the game shines in many ways. Neketaka is one of my favorite cities in any game, easily equaling Tarant, and coming close to Amn. The art is ****ing gorgeous. The itemization is actually pretty good this time. The factions are so. much. better. Multiclassing is really fun and the sub-classes work really well. There's the appropriate amount of piano assassination. The spirit world is really cool. The Gods, except Wael, are really well done. Josh needs to take a long break and make a game he wants to make. Pillars 3 if it ever happens, needs to go to one of the DLC leads; they all did great, particularly whoever lead the Forgotten Sanctum.