It's a combination of:
1. Push strategy...i.e. you didn't know you needed to care about this, but here it is.
2. A bunch of isolated idiots in a Madison Avenue boardroom looking for provocative ideas.
3. Rationalization that if you complain openly about it, you will be shot down, doxxed, isolated, etc.
4. Selling razors, presumably in their minds to the new generation of shavers.
It's win-win for Gillette because as I mentioned, people who point out how silly it is risk being attacked as out of step. If it does sow enough dissent, Gillette still is being talked about. It's kind of like wedge issues in politics, meant to distract while the train chugs along.
Sadly, it's not enough for any brand to just do what it does. It's why you get candy bars in "bite" forms and why McDonald's tries to be everything but a hamburger joint. Why can't Snickers just be Snickers? When they're not supposedly using NASA technology to improve razors, Gillette now is resorting to telling stories about how woke they are. They can't just sell quality razors. This is truly the stupid side of capitalism, I must admit.