Thing is I feel Stranger Things did the most heavy lifting on making DnD mainstream by way of having characters styled as 80s nerds doing basic gygaxian dungeon delving

Idk if Stranger Things bouyed D&D or just jumped on the bandwagon. But its notable that they're playing a TSR game rather than Warhammer or Rolemaster or GURPs or even some made-up generic analog. It isn't as though the 80s had a deficit of table-top alternatives.

DnD as all lifestyle brands requires a avid community acting as a self feeding oroborus (YouTubers, supplement OGL makers, streamers). The tightening of the OGL to DnD 6 gives a hint though that WotC wants more at the cost of harming part of their community ecosystem (i.e. people able to make some income from making in certain cases far better supplements and adventures than the WotC writing team).

Disney works as a lifestyle brand despite being rigorously litigated and enclosed. If anything, it works precisely because so much historically public content (everything from Grim's Fairy Tales to Greek Tragedy to Shakespeare) is cornered off into an exclusive private domain.

But it does also hinge on WotC vomiting up a Disney-tier of high quality production and regular content. If they just abandon the old TSR game formula, an audience nostolgic for 80s-era content isn't likely to follow.

One reason Paizo had so much room to grow was because WotC abandoned the 2e/3e framework for a more MMORPG style of game in 4e. Suddenly, Pathfinder was the D&D alternative that actually felt like a D&D game. 5e reclaimed a bunch of that space (and pf2e didn't really do Paizo any favors). If they walk away again, I imagine either Paizo or some other developer will happily milk the old 1.0 OGL for all its worth in their absence.