> I think the problem is not so much that the stories feature characters who are not white men

It's easy to read what I'm saying that way but that's not really it. It's more about who the authors are and who the awards committees bend over backwards to exclude.

There's been tons of Hugo Award controversies related to authors, excluded authors and content the last....15 years or so. (Although, to be fair, controversy and Hugos go back as long as the awards have been around).

In scifi literature the formulaic over-told stories aren't even being published anymore. It's more like stuff that's barely even science fiction...

Again, the sales numbers show that the classics in the genre are still selling. It's the new content that isn't moving.

Yeah the fundamental problem is that a committee of suits have taken over the creative reins of big franchises trying to please the population at large. This is never going to work long term as it feels completely fake.

Usually creatives will do something that resonates with them personally and sometimes this touches people universally. This isn't something you can create artificially IMO.

Oh, they brought the IPs already saturated. They are losing ground on almost all of it.

What isn't a given like you tried to say. A saturated segment just means it won't grow. They could have kept all of it forever if they handled it well.