Price of Hero 9 is the same as Hero 8, which I’m pretty sure is lower than what I paid for Hero 7. It’s £279, granted you need to also prepay for annual GoPro plus subscription. Which clearly is a popular product, so many including me pay anyway.
Also as long as you need a camera to be bolted onto something GoPro will be in business.
diversification is a lot of times a poor business strategy as companies are known to lose focus. Doing what you do best and evolving it while looking for the next game changer is what they should be doing.
1” sensor is no good because it would require a focusing capability. Not something anyone wants to use when the thing is bolted to your head. Look at RX0 - limited use camera with 1” which is not a competitor to GoPro. I had it, it’s cute but mostly falls short of anything it tries to do.