The thing is that CRPGs too are really really really complex games.
This is something a lot on the general gaming community do not understand. Part of the success of the Battle Royale genre was the incredible simplicity needed for game development which meant MUCH higher profit ratios. It is also why we are seeing so many procedural RPGs come into the RPG genre. A procedural system simplifies the backend creation method and cost by quite a bit.
A "proper" RPG will require a great deal of writing to begin with. The story is the core of the game with everything else being designed to support that core. This is unlike "most" RPGs today which write a "story" around the game mechanics and core. By creating the story first you then begin iterations of that story as the game is built with some limitations of technology forcing story changes. These changes can lead to new directions and ideas and so the creative process, creation of the plot and adventures becomes the biggest time consumer in the core game creation.
Once you have the "technology" needed to implement the story as envisioned, now you need to add flesh and muscle to that skeleton. This is the effort for the artwork which is based on the lore. Again many companies do this backwards and develop the "story" based on existing art assets.
This entire process is so much more complex than most other game development as all interactions of the various teams can dramatically impact the final experience, in much more nuanced ways than other game types.
This means well done CRPGs have longer lead times, higher development costs and thus lower profit ratios that other gaming genre.
