That's completely bullshit, and nothing more than a dumbass excuse to try to cover up the fact that they're just sexist assholes. They just want to make themselves out to be the heroes fighting for the poor men even anybody who actually watches the movies or shows can tell that everything they're saying is complete bullshit.
I'm not saying that isn't true. They clearly feel threatened by the idea of culture moving past them. Like any con artist though they understand that you have use to truth to tell lies. It's how you make yourself credible to people who do not see themselves as sexist or any of those negative things.
They are also smart enough usually to know a character like Captain Marvel is a easier target than Wonder Woman.. One movie is great. The other is Meh. One character was interesting. The other was once again, meh. They basically segment their arguments into 3 categories
1 Woke and thus bad. Anything that is progressive is not of good quality.
2 Diverse and good but not popular hence selling the idea that the key to profit is male or traditional led stories is the way to go. The "Go Woke Go Broke" argument.
3 Example of diversity done right. Usually has a strong female character that is good in addition to also having a strong male character in the movie as well.
They put a strong emphasis on male representation and whether or not the male character is going to be manly enough to be acceptable, Focus on a movies success in terms of profits. They see these things as a means of measuring how much society is embracing or not embracing wokeness. Quality of the female lead.
It's actually more fascinating when their "strategy" as you could call it backfires like in a movie like 'Barbie." They were sure that movie would be hated and not make money. When that didn't happening they basically had to alter their views to now embrace it as being a success all because of Ken and Barbie being a girl brand product thus making it's success built on giving a female audience something they wanted to see.