Seems like a big decision to make just to troll some assholes online with some potentially bad business outcomes

First, are you kidding me lol. Do you not realize the types of arcane logic used in marketing decisions that comes with all TV and movies?

The thought process is very simple: make decisions that they know will anger people on social media, it becomes a whole thing, and the hopefully more people hear about it.

An example: how much would have people talked the Little Mermaid remake if the main actress was white? We actually already have our answer, the Beauty and the Beast remake no one ever fucking heard of despite starring Emily Watson.

But if they make major race chances, now that makes it harder to shit on because racists are also going to shit on it and so the studio get to stand proud that they are braving racism, maybe they can say it failed (which it will) because of racism.