If you mean the 10 million could have kept Spirit afloat then I’m going to disagree and say that 10 million is a drop in the bucket for their cash flow needs.

Well thanks!

I too am searching for what happened

Agree even the puppets that are made for practical filming often get fully replaced with CGI anyway. Its just people like to hear practical even if it is not true.

It probably has more to do with the director and people wanting to see good movies in general.

Watch this guy. Every modern movie you think was done practically probably has hundreds or thousands of CGI shots. Including moments where not a single practical thing is on screen. https://youtu.be/AFLcP-t0-kI