I'm actually surprised people are so dismissive of gender as a character trait. While gender doesn't define you, it'll give you a different perspective based on the cultural norms associated to each gender. Sadly this is based on our heavily patriarchal society that has women in positions of oppression and activism.
Gender isn't an internal characteristic, but it's put forward and the response to it is later internalized. Nobody should be shocked that Nintendo adheres to the damsel in distress trope, as it in the most destilled way, tells a story of two loved ones reuniting that has universal appeal. Women are obviously handed the short end of the stick by having a representation that leaves them in passive roles (not necessarily weak), and it reproduces gender reality in a way most of us would like it to go in the opposite direction.
Could the damsel in distress trope work by changing any of the characters gender, be a captured lord, a female hero or both? Absolutely. But I'm not as convinced that the viewer assimilation and interpretation of the text is the same because it's being read by a specific cultural paradigm. I would like stuff like these happen in numerous media and titles, both subverting franchises and by being progressive with new creations, since the positive message it entails is very important. But Nintendo both as a conservative company, but more importantly, as a minimalist company, attributes a lot of value to the universal understanding of gender roles to visually transmit information of the situation.
I'm dissapointed Nintendo isn't more progressive about these matters, but I'm not getting upset because a Japanese company isn't riding the progressive wave western countries are having. I'm not getting upset at ridiculous interview answers either as they are left hook questions that are translated. I will get upset if they send out a press release that contained such contrived reasons because that would reflect on the company as a whole as structurally regressive.
