Yup, the folks running STD cynically thought that raping the ST fanbase would be a guaranteed path to success. Seriously, their whole approach to the ST universe has been based on cynical exploitation. There's clearly no interest from the writers when it comes to legitimately exploring the ST canon.
Defiance, while cynical, wasn't nearly as bad as STD. Obviously the show didn't derive from an established story canon so it can't be criticized for that. But it had other issues and generally wasn't good so it deserved its fate. I haven't heard anything about that show (or game) since it got axed so I doubt it's still bringing in much money. Who is watching it? Where is it airing? Is it rattling around the Netflix bucket of crap TV shows? If so, it can't be bringing in that much in royalties at this point.
At any rate, Defiance stands as a cautionary tale about the dangers of investing hundreds of millions into a TV show. Even one based on a proven winning formula like Star Trek. You'd think that anyone investing that kind of cheddar would say to themselves 'Okay, we have to hone close to that which made the original a success, namely heroic leading characters the audience can relate to'. The last thing you do is change the story so drastically that the fans don't recognize it any longer. That's like buying the company that makes Famous Amos chocolate chip cookies but then removing the chocolate chips and replacing them with rodent turds, and replacing the sugar with salt, and replacing the butter with motor oil. But you keep advertising them as Famous Amos chocolate chip cookies and you keep insisting they taste great and are a smash hit. Most importantly you insist your rodent-turd cookies are selling amazingly well but you refuse to give out the actual sales figures for cookie sales. You just keep insisting that you've shipped out record numbers of cookies since you bought the company, but you most definitely don't release the figures for the vendor returns of those same cookies. You plug your ears, close your eyes, shake your head and keep blathering to anyone foolish enough to listen that your cookies are a success.
This may sound like a crazy scenario but it's exactly what TPTB have done with Star Trek ala STD. They took a successful recipe (Star Trek) and completely changed the ingredients until the recipe no longer resembled the original (STD). And to make matters worse they insisted on still calling it the same recipe. This can only be attributed to cynical, self-delusion, which can only last so long because reality will come crashing down eventually.
