I have two new thoughts since I read newer posts.
The X-Men comics took a veeeery tiny baby step toward trying to understand what people want when they started doing the X-Men votes. They were very up front in saying they didn't expect Polaris to win the first vote, and that her winning it was a complete surprise to them. It shows they don't have their pulse on the interests of readership and they need to do more to figure them out. Unfortunately, instead of taking it as a learning moment, it seems they've taken it as just a PR gimmick where they begrudgingly have to do a few things if it's a result they don't actually want. Lorna was only in half the issues, and nothing of real substance character-wise happened with her in it. I'm not saying she didn't have good moments or anything, just that it was a far cry from what they would've done if it was a character they thought was "more deserving" of use. There's a clear mentality issue within the X-Men comics office where they just ignore things they don't want to hear and hope forcing things people don't want will make them happen.
The other thing is that I honestly think some people in the comics industry want it to remain a niche industry. My comparison point here is video games. They've become extremely popular over the past couple decades, but there's quite a lot of people who hate that. They think video games should be some small insular community where who is and isn't a "gamer" can be controlled with gatekeeping. They often insist that they've been "looked down on" in the past for having a "nerd hobby" and people who aren't "like them" shouldn't get to "invade their space." They also often trot out 80s and 90s advertising going exclusively to boys and claim there were nooooooooo girls playing video games because of that (and they're very wrong, I've chatted with plenty of women online that were huge into NES and SNES games when they were new).
I've never been a huge comic book fan so I don't know much, but I do know that comic books were viewed as "mainly for nerdy boys" at one point in the same way as video games. I think some people working in comics have a certain false nostalgia for that concept of comic books and the community around them, and they would actually be happier if there was less widespread acceptance of comics. Keeping outdated models and practices, refusing to progress and innovate in any real way, refusing to accept changes needed for various characters and concepts, it all boils down to an attitude that's meant to keep comics as a niche industry instead of growing it into its real potential.
When I say nostalgia seems like the biggest threat for good work, I usually say it in reference to Lorna, but realistically it's a problem for the entire industry by extension. It's really not just a problem for a single character. It's a problem for all of them. My focus is just on the character I care most about.