I mean I think there's a spectrum of conservatism. Obviously WotC is not going to try to appeal to the kind of toxic, extreme people who think that different skin tones existing is "woke" or anything like that. But there is a kind of "mushy middle" where people are fine with "inclusive gaming" as long as it doesn't go too far, in their opinion.
I'm certainly not going to try and say the Aardlings were amazing design or anything, but I do think there was an undercurrent in the criticism of them that isn't present in something like the Goliaths. Like I'm not really a fan of their current design, but I'm not upset by them existing in the game, and neither it seems are most people. So I think with Aardlings, it was not just their design, but all the fact that they would appeal to, you know, furries that set a lot of people off. There's an antagonism to even the concept of them, where they would appeal to a lot of loudly queer people, that doesn't exist with "big muscle people who can get even bigger."