I'm not sure I can really get behind the untested studios assertion. Sure, some of the studios were green, but they were headed or staffed by industry vets with proven track records. And I doubt Sony bought them without looking at what they were working on. Firewalk is staffed by former Bungie employees, Haven headed by Jade Raymond, Bungie made at least 1 good game, Valkyrie was a support studio on Forza Horizon 5, Halo Infinite and God of War Ragnarok, Bluepoint and Nixxes are talented port studios with celebrated resumes, with Lesengle and Savage/Neo Koi being mobile developers. It isn't like these studios were full of nobodies.
Indies have always been at the spearhead of creativity though, this isn't some new trend. Larger companies have traditionally been more risk averse, while smaller companies have been more apt to swing for the fences with some novel idea and mechanics. This trend you are picking up on is the industry trying to appeal to a younger demographic, because growth has stagnated and they are trying to capture younger players who have grown up playing Minecraft, Roblox and Fortnite. Sometimes it works, like Helldivers 2 (which is described as a "pretty woke" game by it's community manager) and sometimes it doesn't work, like Saint's Row - Which ended up looking like Buscemi with a skateboard. Also, the problem with describing anything as "woke" is that it's proven undefinable. The previous example of Helldivers 2 is a perfect example, because it's defined as such by at least some Arrowhead employees, but many of it's players insist that it isn't.