Did people actually believe the whole corporate DEI parade was a real thing?

Exactly my point. DEI is nothing more then soft racism imo and one of the most accepted forms of virtue signalling today. In that case the "king" was the slightly hysterical progressive ideology that's been around since covid.

I think people are going to discard it. It'll be interesting to see what people propose to replace it with considering all the alternatives have failed. Maybe you're right and we'll resume with a stricter regulation. At this point though we have bigger fish to fry: Americans have just learned they have no inalienable rights. All their rights are what the government allows them to have. Several people have come to that realization over the lifetime of the US, but now that realization is hitting everyone en masse. How that is dealt with my drive how capitalism is dealt with.

> Capitalism should be recognised for what it is: an amoral engine for economic growth

This is exactly why capitalism needs strong and active regulation to protect people from it. Capitalism is, effectively, sociopathic.