Deferred rendering is possible but not feasible. We would need to to maintain multiple rendering pipelines for mobile/web/pc and would still need a forward renderer for transparencies. You would also loose the possibility to use custom GLSL shaders for surfaces.
The (in my opinion) better solution is to iterate further on the current renderer and create something new and unique. You can see what AMD did for example: https://diglib.eg.org/EG/DL/conf/EG2012/short/005-008.pdf.abstract.pdf
We need to innovate. Simply doing the same as everyone else is not feasible since we don’t have the resources to compete with them in their own game.
Btw: “Next-Gen” is purely marketing. You can sell everything as “Next-Gen” with enough advertisement. The same goes for “Triple A”.