weird dichotomy of some games where the crummy monetization has to be propped up by the quality of the underlying game (overwatch), versus when the game itself isn't very good and has to lean on the bombast of its monetization (fortnite). I would not be surprised if games in the former category don't make much money outside of content like expansions or battle passes
while not strictly related to games, disney is the former. most of their original merch (as in not just something pulled straight from the work as a plush or a toy) is funko pop levels of garbage nobody wants. go look at their site's shirt catalog if you want to see a truly hilarious disparity between the atrocious designs and high prices. most fans seem to go to etsy for that sort of thing since the designs there are ones people would actually like to wear
sometimes I think that physical products shouldn't be allowed to be manufactured unless a minimum amount of people genuinely would want it. modern online games have a truckload of collectable items that are also completely worthless and only exist to pad out battle passes, but at least digital junk has an infinitesimally lower carbon footprint than physical trash