EA essentially ended Maxis as a creative entity around the time of release of Simcity 4/The Sims 2.

They've mostly been cashing in on The Sims since then. I have a feeling the core concept of Simcity (2013) was developed under orders from some executive who only had superficial experience with city-builders.

I am not saying every employee needs to be a 360 expert on the products in their segment (including historical ones), but you at least need a high level understanding of what people are looking for and how your product is used.