Banished is a low bar. It had a lot of issues. I would argue the recently released Farthest Frontier is a better comparison. It also has some flaws but is leaps and bounds better than Banished.
I am male. If given the option to play female and a female would make the story more interesting I will choose to play a female. What defines “interesting” is arbitrary. Valheim - female named Muscle Wife. Phasmophobia - black male with friends (due to movie tropes) and female solo (because they look janky and ragged as hell). MMOs - depends on the aesthetic. If I am going to be staring at a character for a long time and I am not roleplaying an ugly bastard then I will choose female most of the time since I don’t play MMOs to self insert.
When choice isn’t an option I do not avoid a game just because of a character’s race or gender, but I am starting to get real sick of white male protagonists. They aren’t really offering me any new perspectives.