So... they're saying all the same stuff they said about the first game, which also had “a wide range of ethnicities”? All the contrast is inserted by Kotaku. None of the direct quotes suggest a change in direction.

See where the quotation marks end in the article:

“a wide range of ethnicities” this time around.

Notice how they didn't speculate on whether black people will be in KCD2. They're too pussy for that fight just yet, plus everyone's grown way more sick of blacks since KCD1, so it's a losing question. However, they're acting like it's been asked and answered by contrasting Warhorse's milquetoast PR against the statement "back during the lead-up to the first game, Vávra insisted there wouldn’t be any Black(sic) people in it" - as if there is a clear change.

DT990P is right, this is FUD D&C bullshit. They are still seething about DEI rewriters like Sweetbaby being uncovered so they want you to be seething too and to think of their presence as normalised, in every last patch of the industry. Quick search shows the entire blogger warfront, pcgamer etc. all the usual suspects, are running this exact line: 'KCD2 will be diverse this time, what now racists!' They haven't told you a single thing that wasn't in the game reveal or prior PR, but they're acting like there has been some ideological confrontation that has worked out in their favour. The fact that at this stage they're too cowardly to have pushed the issue as strongly as it was pushed last time, suggests maybe the opposite.

That's not to say KCD2 won't be pozzed. Warhorse got acquired by Koch media and who knows if Vavra still runs his own show. I don't know, but neither do Kotaku et al. They are a lousy irrelevance, let them die.