Actually he did plenty of films that weren't artsy at all. He just did a lot that had low budgets. Low budget doesn't equal artsy.
Add to that the fact that he's been in the business for over 20 years now, I say his choice to do a commercial for Cisco probably has little to nothing to do with having a family. Look at his IMDB page. He's hardly hurting for work of late and he's been in a great variety of films that shows he doesn't enjoy doing the same thing over and over again.

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Buying Cisco's brand of wireless routers is a good cause? That's news to me.

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Just saw that commercial for the first time last night. Turned to Mr. Penny and said, "Remember when Ewan McGregor would only do artsy films and refused to do films that had commercial appeal?" That's what happens when you grow up and have a family to take care of.