I do agree with this sentiment, I love it when I read books that aren’t Eurocentric, draw from other cultures, and have a diverse cast. I am curious though how much much of this is because I’m from a western society, so naturally the author’s I read are drawing from what they know in real or were taught in school. My general knowledge about Europe and its history is considerably better than my knowledge of Africa or Asia. Authors write what they’re familiar, and in western fiction, that tends to be European settings and because of that they probably default to white.

I do agree that this “default” of white straight male is problematic, and I feel like even if you stuck to medieval Europe settings, that shouldn’t really prevent you from including a cast that’s not all white dudes. What immediately comes to mind is the Stormlight archives, where I feel like the general vibe is more medieval Europe, but people are described as more Asian. Basically OP, I’m saying I agree with you, but I would be interested to compare what the “default” characters are from English-speaking western countries to pretty much any other culture. Do they have same problems with including diversity and moving beyond their cultural “default” as well?