I doubt that. More likely is the behind-the-scenes battles at the company. Archie went public in the 70s, but, the families of the original partners were the chief shareholders. It went back to private ownership in the 80s and stayed that way. In the mid to late 00s, there was a battle between current CEO John Goldwater and co-CEO Nancy Silberkleit. Goldwater has been the driving force for Archie's resurgence; but, it sounds like the decline of the 80s and 90s and the battles that followed depleted them financially. How much they made off of Sabrina and Josie and the Pussycats I don't know; but, I have to wonder how much went back into the company and not family pockets.
From an entertainment standpoint, there is a lot to be gained from the Archie characters and properties. You have an excellent name recognition, across generations, which can be used to sell tv shows and movies. the problem is, outside of cartoons, the attempts at doing tv and movies haven't had a great track record, apart from Sabrina. I don't know about the new tv series, until we see it. It sounds like a bit of a departure; but, that may just be antsy marketing people who want to distance themselves from the age of the characters and things like "Sugar, Sugar."
Archie always put out a good property. Sure, they recycled everything and didn't always move with the times; but, even when I outgrew the bulk of their material, when I looked at an Archie story it was still a solid piece of work. It wasn't often groundbreaking, but solid. In recent years, they have actually taken some chances and they have paid off. I always liked their superhero line; but, they've never handled it well and they also have been wishy-washy about farming it out. The Dark Circle stuff started with promise, but it seems stalled or in a coma. Quite frankly, I think a lot of it could make for good cartoons and possible movies or tv shows.
Yeah, seeing as how they're one of the few 1930s American comic book companies to have lasted as long as they have and not go defunct, it's weird that they don't have a bigger presence.
Archie comics of now is just gimmicks. Their two main horror books have stalled for years and they ditched the entire Action lineup. (I get that they lost Sonic, was Mega Man had no reason to end.) They've put all their eggs into the Riverdale and Netflix Sabrina baskets because TV makes more money than comics.
I still miss Renee Montoya. Oh, and I'm a dude.