Reputation matters.

While there are certainly some people who will mindlessly buy Game X+1 from a developer, there are others who get burned by developers and don't give them the same trust. On a large enough scale, this can shift a game's sales enough to effect overall profits.

To use your exact example of Battlefield 2042, EA investors and upper management were NOT happy about the sales figures. Management declined to comment on the sales figures in an investor call, and given how much money EA spent marketing the game they might very well have lost money, even with the relatively large sales numbers.