As some others have pointed out, what i'm describing here is that the order of operations has somewhat reversed here -- instead of making a cartoon as an intentional advertisement to sell toys (G.I. Joe and Masters of the Universe were literally owned by toy companies Hasbro and Mattrel), independent animators have to rely on merchandise sales in order to sustainably fund their cartoon at all. This has observable effects on how shows that may want to convey mature themes and serious subject matter have to kneecap themselves conceptually by still appealing to people predisposed to buy merchandise (children and the most consumerist parts of fandom), otherwise the project just isn't financially viable. It also results, at least in my view, in jarring tonal clashes between either character design and subject matter or between the show itself and the aggressive merchandising of it -- people have repeatedly brought up Knights of Guinevere talking out of both sides of its mouth on consumerism for example, and also grieved the somber, breathtaking sci-fi show Scavenger's Reign which is just not a merchandisable product in terms of tone or character design. Some stories, especially ones that aren't trying to be light-hearted or wacky in any way, just aren't toyetic in concept or execution, but that means those stories are going to be borderline impossible to get in front of an audience large enough to sustain its creation if you don't have studio backing (like Scavenger's Reign did when its original short was originally created with [adult swim] backing and then spun into a full series for HBO Max -- and that still wasn't enough to get them the second season that they had planned!!)
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