In my opinion, you are doing the exact opposite of what you should do. Numbers show, that the role of the SO is strongly decreased among your sites. Now you should see it as it is only one of your site portfolio, and instead of giving to it a special role, you should take from it away, what it now has.
In the last 1.5 decades, it could be always felt, that contrary your site network, you still consider yourself only as the SO, with some extra appendages - the SE site network.
It is hard to say from here, why you did it, but the most likely reasons, what I have seen, were the profitability and your personal taste. Now profitability is out, personal taste remains.
In my opinion, you are working on what you would like to do, and not on what is the best for the business.
This is clearly not the key of the long-term survival in a profit-oriented world.