You may be right about Evolution. You can never really tell without having first hand knowledge of these situations. However, I think moving to an online-focused social game and a next-gen title was just a difficult transition in general, and maybe Sony should have given them a bit more leash..
I do think "DriveClub" was a mistake (despite ultimately being a good game after the updates). I think that early in a gen it's better to have more conservative titles. They should have made a next-gen MotorStorm title and then added on more social stuff over time. Either way I'm not hugely gutted just because racers really aren't my thing, but I loved the physics based arcadey action they were going for with motorstorm. DriveClub really didn't do much for me in comparison.
"The Order" is a case of a traditional handheld studio (like Bend) with normal AAA growing pains. They went from PSP games to a damn PS4 title. That's not an easy transition. The actual title they made has a very good core - absolutely beautiful, solid mechanics. It just was way too short, lacked too much diversity of gameplay systems and progression, and felt like Gears-lite. I think if Sony had given them a leash as long as they did with Bend to execute ambitiously on their vision, it may have had a much different result. For sure, the Metacritic was embarrassing, but underneath the talent was still there at the studio. All of their handheld God of War games were great.
I guess maybe Sony learned with Bend to be more patient. Thankfully they did not get closed down like RAD and are giving them a chance to grow now that they are "up to speed" on how to make big AAA games.