I couldn't have said it better.
Santa Monica Studio was on the same boat as many of the developers mentioned in the OP and I guarantee you that they would have been axed as well had 2018's God of War fail to become such a massive hit for Sony, because the studio was coming off an underperforming mainline GOW game with Ascension and a massive new IP cancelled after four years of development.
Japan Studio on the other hand were given the chance during the PS4 generation to produce a "GOW" of their own under the supervision of Allan Becker, but they failed miserably at it. That's why Japan Studio is no more, while only Team Asobi managed to survive the studio's closure thanks to the success of Astro Bot.
Santa Monica was also a support studio though, and honestly have a history of making different IP's and making money. It would have taken them flopping god of war 3, ascension, God of war 2018 to be downsized. I doubt sony would have closed them.
If they had not made any hits during PS2 era I would have agreed. But santa monica has made hits in PS1, PS2, PS3 and not all of them were super expensive only a the big AAA titles were costly.
But the sentiment in your post is true when looking at the bigger scheme in how Publishers work. Look at what Activision has done to Vicarious Visions, and Toy4BOB? And a lot of it is Activisions fault in how they changed Blizzard's internal workings. If they had let Blizzard do whatever they wanted, things would be vastly different.
Not to go on a rant, but people sometimes including me like to paint Playstation and Nintendo as these tone deaf companies. And to some extent recently in how they have handled some things I would have to agree. Specifically pricing. But those things are easily changed/remedied quickly. What can't be fixed is studio culture. Once it's broken or changed a lot of the people leave who started the studio. So getting back to that early style of culture is almost impossible.
Hence why 343 as a replacement for Bungie will always have issues with direction. Even with Joe Staten behind the wheel, he was not the only person who made halo what was back in early 2000's.
I have to give Playstation and NIntendo credit. They stayed true to what they are, and to an extent let studios be who they are in what they make and how they make it. Because of that faith though you get studios who internally I think get to cushy and make the same game because of that mentality. Sometimes they think if they make the same game but with incredible quality its going to be enough.
Well in this current climate, it's not.
I dont have hope for Blizzard, im calling it now i given them till 2023-2024 before people stop caring about their output.
If it were up to me as an original owner of blizzard, if the time comes to buy back, I totally would. LET THE oldguard get it back and bring back all the original people who made blizzard what it use to be. But those days, and that scenario are a pipe dream.