I really don't get how CDPR became such a paragon of capital G gaming virtue.
Well that's pretty simple history to find. Despite themselves, they have quite a few advantages globally that helped them get there and done quite a few good things in the last decade.
Initially with Witcher 2, they had spoke harshly against pirates... but then decided to go the route of publicly announcing they do not DRM lock their games bought directly from them. If you buy it on GOG, you get an exe that you can run to install the game-no DRM. That's always been a PR stunt in my mind... but it turned a ton of their fans into self regulating the pirates. And got them massive kudos when a lot of other AAA games at the time were throwing DRM on their games, and screwing up their releases with the inability to play.
The second big thing is they make AAA budget rpgs. It's because their development and building costs are so cheap in Poland(and with recent news, probably really underpaying a lot of people who would be considered senior developers). Witcher 3 was around $40 million to make, and another $40 million in advertising. If that was done in the US, it would be on budget with the $200+ million Bioware spent making Knights of the Old Republic(Elderscrolls: Skyrim cost $100+ million for reference). Gamers get huge value from CDPR's games despite costing the same as every other AAA game-$60.
The third big thing is CDPR gave all dlcs free for Witcher 3. These were as little as items/clothing to two large, very high quality DLC expansions that added 40+ hours of gameplay to the game. Those two DLC could have been a game themselves, but it was free for Witcher 3 buyers on all systems.
A huge reason CDPR is able to do these is because it's owned and supplemented by GOG. This has the added bonus of cutting out the distributor costs (Steam takes between 10% and 33% of every sale from a large developer's sale on their client). That's all money they get to keep. On top of that, the Witcher games and their other free giveaways on GOG have caused a lot of people to buy additional games from GOG that are also DRM free. All that's allowed CDPR to take larger risks than other publishers/developers.
They've had one excellent game. That's it.
Technically, they've had two (Witcher 2 and Witcher 3), plus all the two major DLCs I mention. Plus the good well of the majority of the games sold on GOG.
They haven't done an original IP. They haven't revolutionized the industry.
Original IP or based on books doesn't matter for anything. They've technically revolutionized the industry by having the most or the 2nd most expensive rpg on pc ever developer(if you translated the wages to any other major country). These aren't real complaints about the game or the series. Last time I checked, Witcher 3 sold over 15+ million copies. That was a year or more ago. These complaints aren't anything that people care about.
They did a generic fantasy setting very well on the third try in the series.
Well, they did a sleep with 50% of the women you meet simulator included in all their Witcher games. The art assets are/were AAA at release and the story was mature. This isn't really a complaint about the actual game, and more a complaint that you don't like the setting.