Oh my god, it's like I'm talking to a child that just left their first gender identity class.
You're literally the only here talking about identity politics, morality etc... in video games. You're honestly a bit obsessed with this stuff mate but I'm not going to respond in a snarky way since I've seen enough in your post to suggest we can have a sincere discussion.
Your character is a big part of the appeal of the videogame, your avatar that you will control throughout the game.
No one is disputing it's part of the appeal of video games. What they are disputing is the massive disproportionate amount of importance you're placing on and how your being disingenuous about it.
I'll deal with the later part later on in this reply but as for the former just to give you few examples for myself:
I hate the way the lady in Control looks. She's looks really annoying, and even the petty things like design of her boots annoy me (I had to change her outfit to the yellow suit). Also in TLoU2 I actually also agree with some of people's critiques of Abby. I massively prefer the character design of Ellie over her and even in terms of Abby herself I don't like the parts where she's sleeveless (don't like sleeveless characters in general men or women) vs when she's wearing a jacket.
BUT these issues wasn't anywhere near a major problem in the slightest that prevented me from enjoying the games because everything else, moment to moment gameplay, graphics, levels etc.. you know stuff that ACTUALLY matters far more, we're really, really good.
An inverse example would be Leon from RE4. I really like his character design (and the entire design/aesthetic of RE4 in general) but that isn't enough to make me enjoy the game because there's so many issues I have personally with the gameplay loop, camera and controls.
Let's take Devil May Cry. A big part of the identity of the game are the cast of characters: a group of cool people with the capacity of doing otherworldly acts, fighting included. If you weren't playing as Dante but instead, let's say Bob from accounting with a beer belly, with a bit of a humpback, you'd instantly change the game.
This is an example of that disingenuousness that I mentioned earlier. The design of women in Returnal looks 100% like a female army/space pilot, Google pictures of female army/space pilots and they look in keeping with the design of this character without question.
The example you've used here of a beer belly accountant with a humpback being the main character in DMC would be equivalent to if the character in Returnal was a fat, purple haired pre-transition blogger or something. Or if she was a petite 18 year old in a school girls uniform with massive breasts. But that's not the case, the overall design of the women in Returnal does not have in dissonance with the theme of the game.
Why is Mario so liked? Yes, the platforming is great, but the IP is valuable not just for the mere mechanics, but the image of a fun, cute and family friendly Italian plumber cartoony avatar.
Different games have different selling points. Stuff like Mario, Sonic, Crash etc.. are mascot games so the design of the character is immensely important. Look at another extremely valuable IP like COD, literally none of the characters/designs are recognisable or memorable in the slightest. The point you're trying to make here is extremely weak.
The great majority of people don't like playing with an unappealing main character. People spent a lot of money trying to figure out what people want to play as, and it happens for a reason.
There's a difference between a totally and completely unappealing main character, like having a beer belly accountant in DMC or a fat tranny in Returnal vs having a character that you're not 100% in love with. The majority of people do not like every single thing about every single main character they play, but it's such a minor the gripe that it does not prevent them from enjoying the MAIN ELEMENTS OF THE VIDEO GAME. That's what I and others find so bizarre about position here, that you think just the face of the women from Returnal (which you're not even going to see the VAST MAJORITY of the times) is so bad that it's make or break for you in terms of buying.
As I mentioned, it's not sex appeal, but rather tone. She didn't have to be a blonde ultra hot waifu, she doesn't even need to be young. Look at The Boss, that's an amazing, appealing design of an older woman. I love it, it's cool, tasteful and appealing. Instead we have a menopausic, angry Karen.
Nah I'm sorry but you're lying here. Sex appeal is clearly the element for you because the "tone" of the women in Returnal is perfectly fine. As I said she literally looks like female in the army/space pilot. Those women aren't lookers, they're munters. And bringing up The Boss just further proves it is about sex appeal since The Boss is a good looking/attractive character. So it's not a matter of "tone" that you want you literally want attractive characters, attractiveness has sexual connotations.
Your post is funny, you get offended by my point about your entire motivation being about being a better person because you "dare" to play as an ugly character, yet you berate me for telling you the truth about what people actually like, as well as live in a wonderland where visual beings don't care about visuals. You amuse me.
Mate nobody on here thinks they are a "better person" because of what video game character they play, loool. You're so deep into the REEEEra rabbit hole that they've got you on strings 24/7 and you're obsessively seeing them everywhere. it's a VIDEO GAME. It's not that deep. Re-lax. You're just as freakish as them with your "I will ONLY play games with [sexually] visual pleasing characters".
As I said before for us sane people we don't cry and seethe and refuse to play a game if our video game characters aren't black trans SJW and we don't seethe and refuse to play a game if our video game characters don't give us erections.