I go back and forth on whether I believe that. I think some of the lefty loonies in the gaming sphere are only there because people came into the hobby and bullied them into being that way, and they were worried about being excluded from the community. At the same time, we know feminist nutcakes crave control, and there is nothing gamers could have done to keep them from turning their attention toward gaming. They want to control EVERYTHING, even if they don't like it.
ResetEra is proof. How many of them even LIKE video games? If all of their screeching finally convinced Nintendo to make Link a girl, they'd cheer and smugly reflect on how much power they have, but certainly not purchase the Zelda game they affected. And they'd believe they had done a good thing.
Even properly gate-kept, feminists would be changing games and probably pressuring gamers into changing, like you mentioned. Maybe we'd be more resistant if we had kept more of them out, but we'd be dealing with it all the same.