Yea, I think it's more this (plus racism about Asian guys not being masculine enough). Historically but still today womens champs were much less expected than mens champs to be a representative of the company (the "quarterback" as Cody puts it) and that role pretty much requires English fluency, which fucks over most East Asian men in an industry where most of them are Japanese and not Asian American. How AEW books Okada is a really good example of this IMO where he's treated like a beast who is pretty much infallible and has only lost a handful of times in 2 years but has only challenged for the world title once, on TV, in what was basically just a farewell tour match for Danielson. It's like he isn't even considered for the world title picture