I think most of the problems with Throne of Bhaal are the problems with high level D&D, at a certain point the numbers and abilities available become so ungainly. The story was good, but the pacing suffered from the shorter amount of time given it. People will pile on to anything critical, which can change the perception of it towards absolutes.
One thing I'm not so sure is true anymore. RPGs aren't the niche they were in the 90/00s. Playing games on a computer used to be the seen as the niche specialist alternative of console gaming, but we live in the Steam era, not so long ago the Yakuza 6's release was making headlines, similarly D&D itself is part of the culture, a confluence of events between 5e, streaming and some clever placement in media, people's cultural image of D&D has moved out of the 80s and into the present.
One last thing. The Baldur's Gate games were never niche, Planescape is niche, Baldur's Gate is the Star Wars of RPGs. Its fanbase actually crosses genres, kind of like Final Fantasy 7 did, and it's had an outsized influence on the genre.
