obviously way more factors to why the game is like it is currently, but it is one of them. I feel like paladins in the past just had way more things going on, with ads, tons of supporters, youtubers talking about it, patch note videos with the team showing off the patch ln a fun way. I also think play of the game should not have been removed that was one motivation to do well.
They fucked up by adding too many new champions and expanding their "lore" insted of trying to tighten the gameplay, fix bugs with existing things. Shame. This game could be what Overwatch 1 never could achieve but tried.