I think the making of the movie was actually very stressful and truamatic for James while actually doing it, even if he's probably tried to convince himself otherwise after the fact. We've all heard the rumor (I forget where from) of him shutting down on set multiple times to the point where his friend Kevin Finn had to step in as a director. There's a reason why he's almost never attempted to make more movies afterwards, even ones without a big production like the AVGN movie. On some level he realized he's not cut out for making big movies like that, which was probably pretty soul crushing for someone who's life goal was to make big hollywood movies. That big letdown definitely has definitely bled into his subpar output after the movie. His heart's just not in it anymore. As much as he blames his muh kids for not having enough time, it's actually a good thing that he has them so he has an outlet that doesn't involve film making, which he hasn't really been passionate about post movie unlike his muh kids.
If James had just stayed in his lane making AVGN and making low budget movies with his buddies his current output probably would be much better because he would have never had to deal with the dose of unfortunate reality that was making the movie. I can't blame him for trying though.