Wait OP are you implying that since RO1 is a niche game that it should remain that way?
That they shouldn't expand and implement new features, systems, and gamemodes that will attract more crowds of people?
Yes, because they can't attract the mainstream to RO anyway, all they can do by attempting that is drive away the RO fans.
RO is simply never going to work as a mainstream game, it offers the mainstream
nothing they want that they aren't already getting elswhere, by games that does it even better and on much larger budgets.
RO will never be a contender, even if they sell out the title 100% and make it about Americans fighting Terrorists in a modern warfare setting, which is what the mainstream thinks is "cool" right now, even then, they woulden't have a snowball's chance in hell.
Others already tried that, like MoH:Tier1 and Homefront, and what happened to those games?
When it comes to arcade military shooters, there is no competing with CoD or BF, those games are not just the most popular, they have become institutions, just like WOW did for the MMO scene, and CS once did for the modding scene, and nothing can hope to compete with that, absolutely nothing, bigger and richer companies than TWI have tried and failed (that includes EA! They poured hundreds of millions into MoH:Tier1, and it failed!), and they did so with games that were far better suited to the attempt than RO would ever be.
You want to succeed with a military shooter today? Then you have to aim it at the players who do not play CoD and/or BF, you have to go to the niches, just like RO used to do, and the "Realism" niche is probably the biggest niche they can aim the game at (it's both reasonably big, and is most certainly not getting what it wants from CoD and BF), and above all, you need to offer something unique that the niche wants.
It'll never become a cash-cow like CoD when you aim at a niche, but you will make money, whereas if you try to fish from the same lake as CoD and BF, you'll just get raped by them.
That's not to say TWI can't or shoulden't try to expand and make money on more mainstream titles, afterall it's good to have a cash-cow to keep the company funded, it will not only make you money but also give you the financial freedom to make more risky or low-yield games that you are passionate about making, but RO is not the cash-cow and never will be, KF is, and possibly they will a new IP aswell down the line, RO is the one they should make because they care.
And if TWI nolonger cares enough to make a good RO game if it doesen't make them rich, then they should stop making RO games and just continue making mainstream bubblegum titles.