If its optional to be gay in the game then it should also be optional to persecute gays in the game.
Why can't i hunt down all the gays in the game as an "optional" side quest? why can't i roleplay as a homophobic priest? why can't i report Hans to the Church for being gay? its all just "optional" right?
The real problem is that you need two stories. To really play evil there has to be a second story for the evil side where they have a satisfying 'win' in the end and nowadays they have trouble even writing one story.
In BG2 there's an actual evil substory with Bodhi, until it merges back into the main 'good' story.
In SW:TOR at least for a while in the core game there's an actual story told from the perspective of ruthless merit, where the Jedi are evil for being soft on crime woke pussies (ala Anakin: "from my point of view the Jedi are evil"). I think eventually you have to take over the Sith and make them actually good, but at least for a good portion of the core game you have the ability to ruthlessly execute incompetence and commit war crimes. It's great.
...just too bad about the jump animation ruining SW:TOR.
I hated the regression to 80% realistic character models with oversized limbs. The KOTOR games had normally proportioned models.