Its the ancient "two demos" problem that producers force in all media. All those old shows had their two demos covered, in that it was made for boys but still had a chick character or a "love story/arc" for girls to technically be appealed to.

Once you couldn't just have a background/weaker girl, or one whose entire point was being the love interest, they were forced to try and push them into the men's roles. And in doing so, just drove those boys out because it just doesn't work the same way.