I’d say the 32X didn’t just compound the problems; it was the problem.

The 32X only existed because of infighting between Sega of America and Sega Japan, and accomplished fuck-all except to almost directly compete against Saturn, cannibalizing sales, causing consumer confusion, serving as a distraction that caused Saturn to come out six months late in NA, etc. If 32x hadn’t existed, Sega could’ve just released Saturn worldwide that same day instead ('cause that’s when it came out in Japan). And, for all we know, Saturn itself might have turned out technologically better if Sega had devoted all of its engineering resources to it instead of splitting them with the 32X.

It was also just a dumb unforced error that 32X and Saturn used almost the same hardware but weren’t mutually compatible. If 32X had been “a Saturn, but slightly cheaper because it’s piggybacking off a Genesis and MegaCD” instead of its own oddball platform, it might have been a raging success instead of a raging failure.