Pathfinder had even less marketing than poe2 and sold more, and it was from an unknown developer in their first game. I have my doubts about marketing being the main problem. Personally, I liked both but prefer pathfinder's combat and companions (not all were good though). Evil playthrough is way more interesting too.
Deadfire is very divisive among fans from what little I can tell. and in a niche genre like this, perhaps divisive is not good enough. I also think that when POE came out It was really the start of the "crpg Renesans" and there were very few games of its kind, but POE2 had more competition
