I'm not really assuming Black Panther will get an auto-win but it seems to be the movie that is the primary focus of this thread.
The real solution though is not making a special category. I'm told there was a time, many decades ago, when the Best Picture Oscar did not go to small movies that hardly anybody saw or cared about (and that's not so much sarcasm as just reality) but was awarded from among movies that people actually went and saw in significant numbers. At some point, the Oscar committee started moving more and more toward those movies that the majority of movie goers didn't see. Granted, being nominated for or winning the Oscar probably boosted ticket sales but still.
So, while what Disney is doing is certainly self-serving, there may be other factors. Ratings for the Oscars being down indicates that more and more, people don't care anymore if there's little there that represents what they are interested in.
That's sad in a way. There are Oscar-winning movies that I really liked once I saw them. "How Green Was My Valley" comes to mind. "Unforgiven" comes to mind. But "Green" was in a time when popular movies won and "Unforgiven" was a relative rarity in being a very popular movie and winning the Oscar. "Million Dollar Baby" is another one and possibly illustrates the problem. I went to see it because it was advertised as a sort of female Rocky movie. Stepping out of the theater with two friends, I said something they agreed with. "Now that it is thankfully over with, I'm glad I saw it but I would never have watched it to begin with had I known it was going to be like that and I can almost guarantee you that I will never watch it again."
It's just too painful to watch someone suffering like that even when it's a fictional character. I would never actively seek out such a painful experience, especially within the context of fiction. It's the equivalent of spending two hours stabbing yourself with a fork. I want to be entertained, not tortured.
But I think more often, it's just that most people would find many of the so-called better movies to be two hours of boredom. Unfortunately, that translates to: "The movies I saw and loved never get nominated or win so why would I have any interest in watching the Oscars?" When that happens with enough people, that equals low ratings and a desire to do something to boost those ratings. Maybe nominate some movies people saw. Maybe not write scripts the hosts have to say that involve trashing the popular movies that are paying for the little movies.