As for this show, it seems like peak stupidity for lucasfilm. A star wars anime wished for by nobody. They just think that because anime is popular putting an anime wrap on their crap will instantly make it a success. Not. Good content sells, regardless of the packaging.
I think you hit the nail on the head. Anime is absolutely killing American comic sales. Series like Demon Slayer and some anime films are doing very well in the United States right now. Marvel comics and DC are an absolute **** show and sales are in the toilet. When you look at the stories they are doing, the terrible art styles, bad writing and political agenda pushing it's easy to see why.
Naturally, Disney has the wrong idea about why anime is popular. It's because it lacks the "wokeness" of American comics and TV shows. However, I do not feel that progressive messaging is really the reason why we are in such a bad place right now. Hollywood has always been left leaning. But the real problem is now Hollywood doesn't understand subtlety. There is no craft in what they are doing. If something doesn't cause controversy, it's not good enough. It's really the diversity hiring and company mandates to include more messaging that are the root of this. Veteran creators won't play ball or are incapable of thinking the way executives want them to and hire these younger people. Even if they have some innate talent for writing or what have you, a lot of them are young an inexperienced.
Creative writing in any form is something that requires practice, criticism and a lot of time to get right. Even when someone is young and talented, they'll do better as they hone their craft. When you research the writers on a lot of these shows and franchises that are crashing and burning, you'll find that the writing staff has virtually no experience. They'll have no experience writing comics, comic book films, fictional TV shows, science fiction or anything of the sort. Some of them have only a couple of writing credits before getting their jobs. Companies seem to think that they need younger creators to produce content that younger people will like. The idea here is they can court these future customers early and keep them for a long time.
Unfortunately, the demographic with the largest amount of disposable income aren't younger audiences. They aren't the biggest consumers of these shows and merchandise. More than that, I think it's a mistake to think that young writers are required to relate to young people. Telling a good story with likable characters often transcends social boundaries. Take a show like Star Trek that used to appeal to people in every demographic you can imagine. Now, they've alienated their core fanbase and the companies that used to produce merchandise want nothing to do with Abrams / Kurtzman Trek.
The real problem here compared to what we see in previous decades is the Internet. Information proliferates quicker than people can adapt to it in terms of entertainment production which now takes longer than ever. More specifically, its a problem of the vocal minority stealing the spotlight and making companies think those are their customers when they are in fact, not their core customers or they are the type of people who will never be happy no matter what you present them. This is why I think companies are out of touch with reality and what people want.
Most people just turn off a show they don't like. They might complain to family and friends but most people will simply ignore it and not make much of a fuss about it. However, your blue checkmark crowd will go on an on at length making Youtube videos, screaming about XYZ or endlessly posting on forums about how wrong they think something is. In other words, the core customers aren't screaming as loud as the vocal minority that can't be pleased no matter what. Companies don't know who to listen to so they tend to choose the ones who scream the loudest thinking that's likely the right choice. They can't understand that when it comes to the internet, it's often the loudest voices that need to be ignored.
Force Awakens, was OK at best with some flaws. Last Jedi was an absolute dumpster fire, as a movie.