Franchise or IP licensing royalties are not as lucrative as causal expansion.
Why did they go the licensing route? Less risk to individual state differences and intra-state commerce issues. Letting somebody else make the THC products and just collect a fee for the brand name and recipes removes federal liability.
With less risk comes less reward.
I would prefer they actually open manufacturing sites in each MMJ state and let distributors handle the marketing and instate expansion amongst the dispensaries. More risk, more reward.