I completely agree with the criticism, but I disagree completely with your assertion that one woman in a position of power can make systemic oppression "not work".. can't believe I'm taking this side, but come on, you could easily write a world where men's increased likelihood of aggression/impulsive behavior (Men accounted for 80.4 percent of persons arrested for violent crime https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_differences_in_crime) leads to them being more likely to risk death to level up. Accepting that premise, you could either write a world where it leads to them being risky and dying early in their careers, or where it leads to many becoming powerful.