I think some of the concern isn't so much over quality but diversity. Beer nerds almost necessarily like their beer esoteric, if not downright unpopular. If I really like a beer but know it doesn't have much of a market, I'd be worried if its producer got bought by someone who had a history of ramping up popular labels and killing off rarer, harder-to-market ones. Maybe when grocery stores had to go to micros to get enough fancy beer in their aisle they'd end up getting a Saison or two; now when they can just go to macro brewers they'll get a few IPAs and consider the aisle fancy enough.

I don't know much of a market is there is now or ever was for esoteric whiskey.