- We've had major progress over the last however many decades.
- A lot of the teams responsible for that work were probably made up of young white nerdy males (obviously not all, but young nerdy males probably covers a large portion of them, otherwise why would we even be here talking about DEI initiatives?)
No, the OP is taking for granted that "a lot" of the teams responsible for that work were made of young white nerdy males, and provides no justification for this assumption. Especially in a world where, prior to the current computer boom, Western scientific progress has been associated with grizzled elderly people in solitary labs, and technology was the purview of megacorps run by middle-aged managers.
- We've had major progress over the last however many decades.
- A lot of the teams responsible for that work were probably made up of young white nerdy males (obviously not all, but young nerdy males probably covers a large portion of them, otherwise why would we even be here talking about DEI initiatives?)
- were all of those teams horrible?