They tried to make Magic the Gathering into some kind of big brand with characters and merch and corporate fuckery- they drove people away, myself and my friends included.

I don't see this going much better.

Have they sicced the pinkertons on anyone yet? Maybe a negative reviewer?

There seems to be a lot of attention on WotC actions, so I guess people are concerned that it might work to turn D&D in this dreaded "lifestyle brand?" Statements like the "it won't work" in the title serve to convince yourself then.

I don't care about WotC. There is no threat to anything I'm playing. If they destroy the D&D brand, so be it.

Could it still affect me negatively? Maybe indirectly. If D&D blows up, then RPG community probably shrinks and fewer people join. The most popular game is the entry game for many after all. So it will hurt the many small indie creatives too. Maybe there will be a painful correction. On the other hand, it probably results in a more healthy and resilient community afterwards. Still, I would feel sorry for the people who live on a small RPG business now which might not survive a D&D implosion.

It has merchandised in the past with some success.

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Back when TSR was sold out from under Gygax's clutch, Lorraine Williams tried some similar marketing, there was a beach towel with Dungeons and Dragons' red dragon in this design:

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Only as I recall it, the lettering and dragon were pink. I have never seen it posted online, and I didn't buy one*. I don't know that many sold.

*Of course there was this whole Satanic Panic back then, and why would anyone want to advertise they played D&D at a pool where likely everyone would have given you a bunch of crap for playing "the Devil's game"?

After seeing Forbes write about D&D on multiple occasions, years of RPGs in video games, 50 years of RPGs being in society, a successful movie, and absurdity of the 80s situation gone, it could work now.