Well it is a very odd concept that conflicts with conventional capitalist wisdom.
After FORD dumped it's majority stake in Mazda, Mazda had to do a gut check and decide if they wanted to go to battle with the Big 3 Japan motors, or just be happy with their small position.
They developed an interesting strategy instead... they went all in on designing the SKYACTIV engines and chassis, making certain that quality, efficiency, and scalability were paramount. They wanted to reduce costs long term, and at the same time increase the brands image as a reliable alternative to the big 3 Japan. In addition, having many different engines and chassis' also make it difficult for a dealers service department to perform and maintain a high level of satisfaction for the customer.
There are also dangers of this strategy, and one of them is having a fault or engineering failure on a part or component, and since you have used it on every car you produced, you have a massive overhead / recall problem.
Another problem is that when the "Vanilla" car drivers come to drive a Mazda and they are not pleased with the tighter driving dynamics, noise, vibration, feel that enthusiasts look for. So they have to dial back some of that feel, for sake of the comfort, at the risk of alienating the enthusiasts. It is a delicate balance indeed...
So in fact over the last 5 years the Mazda's have indeed gotten a bit more vanilla, but they had no choice if they wanted to stay an independent car company. The benefit of selling a lot more vanilla pudding, is that I would expect us to be receiving some special desserts from Mazda soon...