[user104658]

The reasons for diverse hiring criteria are often very valid and the need for diversity in some workforces is part of what might make one candidate the best person for the job. Trying to boil down successful hiring to "just always hire the most technically competent individual and that will be the right choice strategically" is, simply, incorrect from an organisational perspective and (frankly) usually comes from people who have never actually done any nuanced hiring.

If there's a small gap in experience and technical ability that's more than compensated for by the strategic benefits of a more diverse set of views within the workforce, then the choice leaning towards diversity is often the better choice, pragmatically, not just out of "woke morals".

I'm not sure how this would apply to fire fighting, to be fair, HOWEVER I'm not going to pretend to know the ins and outs of it as a career path... So can't say it's not valid.

It is (for example) a very valid stance for policing, when plenty of people would happily see police forces stacked with white men "if they tested better". It's really not how strategic hiring works.