I’ve been thinking about this for a LONG time, years at this point.
I love the basic idea of sitting around and immersing a group in a role play situation. The few times I’ve been on the player end that kind of experience has been great.
I also think the D&D system has a painfully complex onboarding process and is still (even with the massive changes 5e apparently made) a system that focuses heavily on combat, specializing in knowledge in a particular field, and “career” progression.
And when I talk to my friends about the themes they engage with to escape – from books, games, podcasts, whatever – many of those themes are clunky to translate to the D&D system.
I don’t have a fix for this. I have some ideas but nothing even remotely solid. Just putting my thoughts out there into the world for posterity.