I think you’re confusing “gay-baiting” for “queerwashing.” Gay-baiting is like when media have homoerotic themes; just look at Marina and the Diamond’s music video for “How to be a Heartbreaker.” The men don’t kiss each other, but it gives very homoerotic tensions because of the nearly nude men dancing together.

Queerwashing is when you turn something that’s already straight/heteronormative and forcing it to be gay. Like Spider-Man suddenly becoming gay. In some sense, it’s gay-baiting, but it’s not exactly.

Either way, yes, corporations are bad, and don’t really care. They only want money and yes, if they knew their reputation wouldn’t hurt because of something but get money, they would do it.