I’ve been pondering the significance of Jeremy Crawford joining Larian for the Panel from Hell this week. Since he’s the principal 5E rules designer at Wizards, why do you think he’s been invited for this panel? It could be they are wheeling him out to explain why 5E rules don’t need to be translated to a video game faithfully? Or perhaps they’re going the other way and leaning more into 5E so he’s there to explain how they’ve worked hard in 5E on the action economy and balance and Larian are moving to emulate that?
I think this will reveal WotC's strategy. They own the IP, so if they wanted they could've put in the contract that they want the rules implemented. If Larian took the project means they both agreed on the terms, this might be that WotC gave them some room to change the mechanics but MAYBE (as many here have pointed out, the majority is silent) this has generated some backlash and their market research indicates that players want a faithful adaptation, thus they are "consulting" through Crawford.
If he is dismisse during the conference and does not make any statement regarding rule implementation, they've probably already agreed with Larian's changes and that's how the game will ship.
I don't have market research, but it would seem logical to me that WotC would want to enforce rule implementation to push cross-sales.
