I’m writing this about a month after Wizards of the Coast did amazing damage to their Dungeons and Dragons brand. The dust has settled and, at least anecdotally, the landscape has changed. I’ve seen D&D-only channels switching to Pathfinder 2E, or even looking at more esoteric systems like City of Mist and Mothership.
D&D’s presence has always been outsized in the TTRPG hobby, but in the latter years of the 5E lifecycle, it’s been hegemonic. I see that as a bad thing for the hobby overall, because it leads to every creative project either being funneled into the 5E design space, or held up against the reigning champ (aka “why should I play X when my table already knows 5E?”). WotC broke this hegemony entirely by accident, and the hobby is better for it.
While I’m glad that WotC finally caved and put the 5.1 SRD under a Creative Commons license, the damage has already been done. As a Pathfinder 2E fan, I’m happy that new people are looking at the game, but I’m also excited that there’s interest in games further afield, like MÖRK BORG, Mothership, Blades in the Dark, Call of Cthulhu, and others. The hobby is so much more than “d20-based class-based heroic adventure in quasi-medieval settings” and I’m thrilled that people are looking beyond the biggest player.