The annoying thing with hot-sauces is that they're somewhat like a vintage product and longer it ferments the more lag the decisions have on the sales.

The management decisions to scale up production take years to materialize on your food.

Even if you hate what you got out of a bottle you bought this week, that taste is not what made the sauce popular years ago. Popularity seems to cause a quality fade in everything that scales out of a single factory.

For example, the Sriracha from 7 years ago tasted totally different than today & it is the peppers that changed, not the recipe. Palo Alto fire fighters has gotten more cumin than chillis as the spicy stuff goes to the XX version. The Athabascan sauces I've loved from Alaska have slowly morphed sweeter and maple.

Tabasco for all its faults hasn't changed that much in the 20 years I've been having it.

Huy Fong also famously had a blowup with their main pepper supplier that ended in litigation and the supplier starting a competing brand, so it's not surprising their Sriracha now tastes differently, given they literally had to source different peppers for it.

Fermentation for foods is really short. Usually a matter of weeks.

Aging takes as long as it needs, but I don't think that the periods are that great for sauces.

Formula tweaking is usually done for costs reasons.