Over the past few years, D&D has exploded in popularity, to the extent that it is now considered a "lifestyle brand" by Hasbro. Sadly, this is a hugely mixed blessing.
It is no longer the case that the primary use for these various products is as game accessories. Instead, they exist primarily to look good on the tables of rich executives, to allow them to show off their Geek Chic credentials. They have no intention of actually playing the game; they have all of the gear...
The secondary use for these products, for those who want a little more from them, is as reading material. Like most cookbooks, they're still not really intended for use - for the most part they're selling an aspirational lifestyle. They're there to let kids dream of all the fantastical adventures they could have, if only they'd stop dreaming about them and actually start playing.
It's only then that we get to the question of actually using the products.
Even then, there's a very great disparity between players and DMs, which means that the majority of customers, even in this grouping, are mostly interested in new and exciting toys for their PCs - so new race and background options, new magic items, new spells.
All of which goes a very long way to explaining the art-heavy vacuity that is the new Spelljammer set.
The final thing to note is that the vast majority of players (and, therefore, customers) these days have no experience at all with any prior edition - even 4e.
Which means that the upcoming Dragonlance set is largely being aimed at kids of the 80s who were maybe vaguely aware of the name, probably never read the books and certainly wouldn't have been seen dead playing the game - and who are now buying for their grandkids.
