Could they have picked a female lead less true to the novel?

One finds it hard to imagine the male lead focusing so intently on anyone so plain, in face and form, as she who was selected to play the role Anne Hathaway mastered in the 2011 version. After Episode One I'd had enough.

But Netflix sees as its duty the determined subjection of viewers to wokery. And an all-white cast apparently could not be tolerated.