The studio pitch was never about chasing the familiar safest idea. It was about trying to make something worth remembering.
A new studio does not earn attention by making a slightly worse version of something players already have. Gamers can spot a copycat instantly, and they are right to ignore it.
So the work has to take risks. In pursuit of originality, art, and the sheer cliff-edge adrenaline of hurling ourselves into the void and building something out of what we find there, the studio should take weird swings instead of polishing safer imitations.