I really hope they go into HDRP for the lightning as well as textures for climbing. As they have yet to lock in on anything I am totally fine with them making that last minute change. There are a ton of simularities so going for the high end makes perfect sense to me. It would allow the graphics to be much longer lasting as well with future updates.
edit: for those reading this render pipeline would eventually allow for more graphical stuff way down the road like ray tracing the light from a nearby nuke off the paladins shield wet from the rain IF they ever wanted to.
Trade-offs - always trade-offs. One can wait decades on development if one always switches to the newest thing because it is better.
Priority one - get the game out in good shape. Which includes good graphics and code that won't create a nightmare in two years because it is full of emergency "one-offs".
Priority two - have it the best it can be with the resources available.
Both superseded by the need for investment and a good producer and a good arrangement with the producer. If investors and producers value point one strongly - go for it without delay. If they feel that a three month delay is more than worth it because of the value adding something different would bring to the table do that.
I don't think anyone was waiting for it, but Unity which they are running on, now offers two main paths to take the URP and HDRP. Since both are for Unity and both are SRPs they are both very similar for any work done prior to full implementation. HDRP came out in late 2019. People have had like 9 months to work with it and show what it can do. I would imagine URP was the plan since deciding on unity but now a superior option presented itself within unity before they ever implemented URP. It is an ideal time to pick it up and run with it.
As for "If investors and producers value one point strongly" ... graphics is a pretty big point. People say its not, but if VR revealed giant triangle with arms pets we would all die a little on the inside. We constantly hear the fear about longevity of the game and looking dated by launch. HDRP leaves that path wide open to expand graphics.