possible that nxp has studied the market and come to the conclusion that this ... "hobbyist" niche is not where they can make sufficient profit to float their boat.
Oh, certainly. Just like most of the major chip vendors. But if they had decided to ignore it entirely, I don't think you'd see products like the 28-pin DIP, or even the more-recently announced 20-pin SOIC. They seem to be aiming at some non-traditional customers of SOME kind.
I think it's because "real engineers" of the mega-profit sort don't actually get to spend a lot of time "evaluating" new CPUs. You get handed a decision, or pick your old favorite, or base a decision on non-interesting criteria like raw speed, supplier reliability, or price. An professional engineer who is actually "evaluating" a chip on more artistic technical merits is closer to a hobbyist than most of them will care to admit (admittedly, of the techno-hobbyist type, rather than the less-technical arduino user. But it still sucks to struggle through that first "blink" attempt...)