I was thinking about something.
Around the time when Marvel Studios would've started planning the transition into this mantle-swap-happy ANAD stuff, there was a lot of support through the press (obviously), discussion forums, Reddit, Twitter, YT, etc all in favor for it. In retrospect, it seems very astroturfed and artificial. Because as these movies are coming out and failing, all of that big talk has gone hush and even flipped in spaces where it was heavily supported.
I especially remember the endless debates about Jane Foster Thor. Donald Blake this, Beta Ray Bill that, on and on and on. It wasn't a piping hot debate because Carol Danvers Ms. Marvel wasn't hugely popular in the first place, but it was similar for Kamala Khan Ms. Marvel. Ofc, Marvel Comics and the activist media were doing everything they could to pretend like these were the biggest smash hits since Spidey - but much of the narrative-bending support fell out from under it when The Avengers game flopped and even before the Ms. Marvel D+ series bombed. I also noticed a lot less in the way of campaigning in support for Falcon Cap by the end of FAWS.
Obviously a large part of this is just natural vibe shift because of a string of shite movies and TV shows; but this stuff was cratering comic sales as early as 2014. Why was there so much zealous support for it in the first place if not for marketing dollars being used to astroturf/feign audience support? I'm probably not saying anything groundbreaking, but I haven't seen it put forward elsewhere.