I read Project Hail Mary and there's this completely out of place dialog between the main character and girl boss character where they are arguing whether a space mission should have a single sex crew or not and it's absolutely bizarre because the girl boss's argument for single sex crew only at best tickles the edges of the overton window (there might be fucking and jealousy etc). The conversation doesn't need to be there as girl boss's wishes are overruled by politics anyway and it's just a liberal and a slightly more pragmatic liberal arguing with each other.

The fact he thought that the conversation was meaningful just demonstrates that people think they are swimming in an ocean of ideas when they are really in a fishbowl.