I really feel like CΓ©dric loves Shenmue and wants it to take back its place as a groundbreaking AAA game. But I am also sure that they know that it's a really hard and rocky path and that they can also make something great and still very Shenmuesque with a lower budget.
I personnally think that Shenmue must stay an indie game from now on. Shenmue, even as a AAA is still a niche game in its core. It was already pretty marginal back then, but it did have some mass appeal thanks to its groudbreaking graphics, animation and technique as a whole, but it was still hard for the mass to get into a game that slow, romantic, dreamlike. And today, with the evolution of videogames that are full of content and that ask you to constantly do something and constantly run everywhere, never take time to breath and walk slowly, it won't just appeal to the mass.
That's why Yakuza is more popular today and is considered better by the mass than Shenmue. It's not intrinsincly better than Shenmue, it is just more appealing for the mass, because it's faster paced, you fight all the time in a very violent fast paced numbed brawler style. So even if Shenmue gets AAA budget and technique, it will still be regarded as too marginalized to be appreciated by the mass.
And we also have to say that, since you have to play Shenmue 1-2-3 to understand the story in Shenmue 4, or at least, take time to watch a whole long-ass story recap, you'll have so little people from the mass willing to take the time to understand the story that was told before to jump in Shenmue now.