Why on Earth do people think the art style for a Canadian-made first-person shooter installment of a series that's traditionally been very unpopular in Japan was chosen to appeal to Japanese audiences?
This game was primarily made to appeal to the western Metroid fanbase. It was just a colossal miscalculation of what the western Metroid fanbase wants.
It seems crazy but Nintendo has done crazy and stupid things before. You wouldn't lose money betting Nintendo would do something stupid.