The idea that DOA5 suffered from oversexualization isn't just Itagaki's opinion, but rather the industry consensus for the game's industry at large since 2015. This idea became industry dogma because it was packaged with the promise that it would expand the gaming industry to a large untapped market of female gamers.
We now have enough hindsight to see this idea hasn't tracked with reality. In anticipation of this broad demographic expansion, investors poured massive capital into the games industry, and large studio productions are something in the realm of 3 times more expensive than they were just 10 years ago.
What started as an idea about oversexualization began to evolve and metastasize as game sales failed to keep pace with the rapidly inflating price of games development. Soon it became about accessibility, then it became about minority representation, then it became about this that and the other thing, and before long game studios became staffed with diversity consultants, ethics committees, cultural consultants, and all manner of new and highly specialized positions aimed at creating a safe homogenized product that won't intimidate and offend the sensibilities of a burgeoning new gaming demographic of socially conscious females and underrepresented minorities.
What you're seeing now after years and years of doubling down on this creative dogma is the chickens home to roost. We've seen commercial flops of a scale and magnitude quite literally never seen before in the history of entertainment with the release and subsequent retraction of Concord. We're seeing massive industry layoffs over and over again from major studios.
While the once prestigious AAA gaming industry is suffering defeat after humiliating defeat, mobile gacha games are raking in untold fortunes satiating the most base and vulgar sexual desires that were supposedly holding back the AAA market from reaching new heights, and gacha studio's forays into AAA development like Stellar Blade have often yielded much greater profit than much more expensive AAA productions, which comparatively cost much more to make only to yield similar sales.
DOA6 might not be the most famous example, but it might be the most clear. DOA6 was made explicitly with the intention to cut down sexualization in an effort to broaden their market, and DOA6 is by far the lowest point in the franchise history both in reception and sales, and if you need any convincing just look at the reviews on Steam, Metacritic, wherever you can find them posted. The developers stated what their intentions were, fans made it clear they didn't like it, and as it turned out they weren't just a vocal minority holding the franchise back. They were the red blooded gooners keeping Dead or Alive afloat, and the only property deriving any reliable income in the DOA name right now is Venus Vacation.
This story of the game's industry might be a culture war, but it is also a story about greed and humility. The industry mocked and derided it's most faithful consumers, believing we'd still support them anyways, and like battered wives we did, but the mythical hordes of trans african girl gamers that they were gambling on didn't materialize to shore up the budget deficit. I'm afraid you're stuck with the incel gooners for the foreseeable future Team Ninja.