what was once a children's game.
As you say: "What was once." As in, is not solely any more.
Now, D&D is a game system that caters to all ages and all walks of life, having grown from a tightly limited scope into something that can now appeal to almost anyone, and provides support and advice for how to pitch your individual game or game table to the audience that it is individually for - be that how to tailor a game space to be fun and engaging, yet still suitable for younger children, or a game space that contains tones and themes that younger audiences might not be mentally or emotionally equipped to explore maturely yet, or even, yes, games that serve as a vehicle for intimate games between mature and consenting adults. The fact that the game has grown and change to encompass all of these things is a good thing.
That aside, Larian don't really seem to have that much interest in making a D&D game to begin with - they don't really have much respect for the setting, system or background lore, and have even stated on record that their main hopes revolve around using this IP as a means of drawing attention to and promoting
Their games... So if you want to look at game history and origins, it might be more appropriate to look at Larian's earlier games, which include, just as the first example that comes to mind from one of their earlier games, a ~12 year old boy-prince who was abusing his position of power to coerce one of his former hand-maidens into being his sex servant instead, and whom he disparagingly referred to as 'miss yo-yo knickers'. This situation was largely played for laughs. That's Larian's style of humour and tone-pitching...
