Would it make more sense? Each separate development has it's own challenges and needs, consider marketing, fan massaging etc. I don't think this is a legitimate issue. The vast majority of people who buy games never finish them regardless of size, I don't think retention would be impacted significantly. Besides large open world games are selling right now best to get in on that market, marketing can trot out pretty stats about the digital square mileage, and number of lines recorded so on and so forth.
I would question this. It's not like we would ever be given a straight answer, but I'd be willing to bet that more people would retain interest and play more of the content if it wasn't pushing the boundaries of being the most bloated game in recent history.
This is relevant, because we are talking about new dlc for a game that is already extremely long in the tooth without it. Consider that for every person that didn't finish the game are now not very likely to purchase this dlc, or even play it if they already have a season pass (level capped) if they didn't finish the main game.
There is value in hitting the refresh button on content, even if it's just in the portions and presentation. For every one person that finds this drawn out approach delightful, there are a lot more that will walk away remembering these products as being overly cumbersome and irritating. Even those that profess to absolutely love this game in its current form would be hard pressed to say that they could fit it all in easily, and it was delicious to the last drop.
My working theory is that it became "their thing" to retain the title of having the biggest and most vast in the wake of other open world game stretching the field with better overall gameplay, pacing and mechanics. The draw backs are that they haven't eased up on needing to be that and it's become their defining attribute more so than the quality of the content itself. Could end up being a bit of a problem when they finally get around to doing something new again.
Just a few thoughts.