PR statements from a company may or may not be true, of course they usually say what the fans want to hear. Nothing can be proven either way, as I already said, only time and future actions will tell. Update: I would not put too much stock into that Gamepressure (a.k.a. GRY-Online.pl) article, it seems to be a collection of bits from old interviews mixed with the editor's biased speculation. In other words, click bait. For example, it is true that the "returning memories" plot would have played a larger role in TW2 (because unused lines in the game data back that up), and that there would have been a fourth chapter which is where the player might have finally found Yennefer by the end, but the article insinuates with a picture from a modded game that she would have played a major role right from the prologue (in which case cutting the character would have made no sense).
Anyway, if the Witcher games become increasingly book oriented at the developer's own choice, I also see that as a negative, it shows a lack of imagination and originality, and that the games ultimately do not create anything of lasting value. As much as people like to bash companies like Bethesda, at least they were able to write their own lore, rather than only ever making adaptations.
By the way, not sure where the figure of 5% of the player base has been pulled from (ironically, a poll on the same site you linked shows more than 40%, although it is a Polish site which may bias the percentage), but even 1% is plenty enough to do damage to the image of a company if they are really pissed off. What do you think the percentage of total Skyrim players was that down-voted the game because of the paid mods, for example? Usually, less than 5% of players bother to review a game at all, in the case of The Witcher 3 on Steam, it is currently only 106640 reviews out of 3.7 million copies sold. Imagine if 1% of the players got outraged by something and all gave the game a negative review, it would immediately go down from "overwhelmingly positive" to only "mostly positive" at best, and become worse than Fallout 4's user review score. That is why vocal minorities are so damaging if they are listened to, their opinion always seems disproportionately louder than it really is.
Edit: in reply to the new post below, there was a lot less fanaticism at the time when the older games were made, they were less popular and mainstream, not to mention the books were not as well known either. Anyway, it looks like you are more concerned with thinly veiled personal attacks and ridiculing my posts than an actual discussion, so I will leave it at that and not bother to respond further.