Bic has sold the same lighter for fifty years. Maybe Adidas just knows they have a couple shoes that sell good no matter what and everytime they try something new it's generally not received that well
It's ironic because they pushed 4 iterations with the 3.st line and for the most part those shoes seemed to do well/were not a total flop at the time. Unless my memory is wrong but 3st.004 and the 3st.001 were really popular before Tyshawn's shoe dropped.
They do know what sells the best: busenitz, superstars, tyshawn, and select team models, so it makes sense they're steering more of their effort into those over being experimental like they were 5-7 years ago.
I also think Scott Johnston leaving and Adidas reshuffling their brand presence in the skateboard world via pulling out of shops is damaging their image, too. That's affected their direction significantly, imo.
Whatever is going on at corporate HQ is trickling down to surface level and negatively affecting their reception by us outside of their successful choices.
Speaking of which: the Abnormal Communication series with Adidas riders is the exact thing I enjoy from them. Gonz, Drake Johnson, Suciu, Maite, etc. all stacking clips in a city with some commentary satisfies my personal enjoyment. That's how I envisioned these big companies in skating. Put out good shoes, pay filmer(s) to stack clips of their incredible team, and put out rad edits from that. That's solid marketing/direction for sure.