I guess that depends on your definition of success.
Hypothetically, if they end up being a $299 price point gun, and sell a tens of thousands of guns to people who would otherwise buy something like a Taurus. Is it a success or not? Their bean counters will determine that I guess. I'm not saying it's going to be successful, and maybe it flops but through their R&D it might shake loose something that is what you would consider a success. Again the market will dictate that.
This is getting off in the weeds a bit and not exactly apples to apples but to your example, many companies that are not traditional "truck" companies have ventured into the truck market, Honda and Hyundai, Jeep (less recently) and soon to be Tesla to a lesser degree. Whose to say that they don't have something in the works to compete in that 1500 class. If Honda came something are you going to say "It'll never work they should only build sedans and fuel efficient SUVs"? Or to keep it in the Gun world when Glock finally builds a PCC are you going to say "who needs another PCC? Glock should just keep making handguns"