I will admit that occasionally, it is as simple as developers taking shortcuts due to time/cost. Particularly in the visual department.

However, there are also a lot of clearly deliberate examples of extra effort being spent on creating ugly and "diverse" characters too. Or changing things in dialogue, story, and gameplay, just to cater to ideological sentiments.

Frankly, the DEI/SBI stuff is mostly a solid indicator if a game's going to be trash, because a studio that turns to that is clearly looking for "gimmie bucks" in place of sales based on quality.

I will admit that occasionally, it is as simple as developers taking shortcuts due to time/cost. Particularly in the visual department.

However, there are also a lot of clearly deliberate examples of extra effort being spent on creating ugly and "diverse" characters too. Or changing things in dialogue, story, and gameplay, just to cater to ideological sentiments.