It’s far more different than BioShock. BioShock is imo a linear shooter I never understood the “immersive sim” tag for BioShock. But Prey is non linear within a space station. You can break away from the main task whenever you want and investigate other things which all play into the main story. You can play Prey 10-20 times and have a different journey each time if you try. The Gloo Gun, Mimicry, etc are all things that allow you to play differently each time and find unique new paths. Talos 1 is chock full of details. The only similarity with BioShock is the reveal, the wrench, and some minor combat similarities. But it’s far more than that.
Unless I’m not seeing something, game production is expensive. Most studios are 1-2 bad games away from closing their doors. Games are expensive as hell to produce and as much as it sucks the “going public” option is sometimes the only way to go.
It’s easy to forget but most small (1-3 people) team indie devs probably aren’t even working a salary. They split the earnings from the game and either live off of that or reinvest it into their company but the moment salaries need to get paid, or office space needs to be used (not really necessary for small teams) that’s when expenses get insanely high. I’m not a business person but I can understand why you’d want to “trim the fat” (I don’t support it at all but to play devil’s advocate, I can see the logic despite the flaws). Growth means structure, and structure means expense.