You are playing semantic games when it is the fundamental idea rather than the term that is causing the issue.
I agree that the problem of racism in D&D is fundamental, being structural and systemic. D&D is literally a game about fantasy racism. Where you pick "race", that is objectively and innately "racially superior" to other "races". The game has been about racism since its origins.
Fortunately, there is only one Human race, representing all ethnicities. The problem is, the other Humanoid races are too Human. Thus concerns about persistent racism remain.
If I had my way, the game would be more like a superhero game. You build your character statistics, and if you want to call it a robot, it is a robot, and if you want to call it an elf, it is an elf, and if you want to say it was bitten by a radioactive spider then that is how these stats happened. In this way, there is no racist essentialism.
But you can see, this choice to make race optional flavor was in this poll, and there is only roughly 3% support for it. Unsurprising, because D&D is a game about racism, and to make it a game about something else is a drastic change that players dont seem up for at this time.
That said. WotC has already said, all "humanoid races" will lack fixed alignment, thus Good Orcs and Good Drow will exist in significant numbers, and have complex societies. I expect that even within dysfunctional Evil societies there will be Good individuals, and conversely within healthy Good societies there will be Evil individuals.
Meanwhile, players will be able to customize the features of a "race" − so there will be Intelligence Orcs and Non-Dexterity Drow, and this will mitigate the problem of racist essentialism.
Meanwhile with these fundamental solutions in place − freewill alignment and feature customizability in place − the semantic change has a reallife benefit. Retiring the term "race" helps distance the D&D game from reallife racism and race politics.
"You are wandering through the woods and you see an Orc" the response it
"I make an attack roll"
Or "You see an elf"
"Is it a light skinned or dark skinned elf?"
"A dark skinned one*
"I make an attack roll"
Does it really matter what term you use for "genetic stock" when "non-whites= evil-- please attack on site" and "White skin= Good-- you can trust them unless the DM is pulling a fast one on you".
As mentioned, all humanoids will have free will and be of any alignment. So attacking a random anonymous Orc would be an Evil crime of terrorism.
You think switching terminology is at all going to make a difference.
And-- ironically-- upon logging in to these boards after like-- 3 years ago-- I noticed that literally the last time I posted on these boards, I responded to someone who said that blacks, asians and whites should have wiped each other out with the argument that "race" was a terrible term to use in D&D and if we used "race" in the real world the way it was used in D&D that all humans would be of the same race.
For having made a post arguing against the use of the term "Race" in D&D, I received an infraction from the moderators Darkness and Morrus, the literal owner of these boards, for daring to question the appropriateness of the use of race in D&D. In which I pointed out that if we used "race" in our world for how it is used in D&D that all humans of different, what we called "races", would actually be a single race in D&D terms and actually humans brought about the extinction of all human-like peoples who would be classified as "races" in D&D terms such as neanderthals and australopithecus and homo erectus.
But anyone willing to engage in these discussions ought to be well aware of the deeply held Euro-centric views and beliefs of the moderation team of these boards and how they are willing to use their powers to enforce their world view upon others. While I imagine that they may have decided to mute their tone after the recent BLM marches, if this discussion is now considered to be perfectly fine even though it was worth giving infractions over 3 years ago-- I don't see personal apologies sent to me from Darkness and Morrus or anyone else in the moderation team from the past 3 years for having penalized me for having had such a view that opposed that of the moderation team to make me think those who run these boards have had a change in attitude about the subject.
Most of us agree, injustice against people because of their ethnicity, sex, gender or orientation is unacceptable.
People feel passionately about this and sometimes overstep irrationally, and patience toward everyone is necessary.
I view a fair justice system as the foundation of a Good society.
If the justice system is corrupt, becoming unfair, it means the society is less Good, perhaps even Evil.