Get it, then I think disagreement runs deeper than I thought. As a sibling comment mentioned, I believe that markets are meant to serve humans, not the other way around.
Edit: typo
Edit: typo
I also do not think that (most) proponents of a balanced representation favour diversity over competency. Speaking for myself, I do believe (from experience) that having diversity in a team results in more resilient, efficient, and "optimal" decision-making. Again, we do not have sufficient tools to prove that empirically, so we better A/B test the hell out of it :)
Mandated experiments are not experiments.
If you're excluding a significant proportion of your population from leadership roles - which is what happens predictably, almost as if by magic, when "markets" make decisions about leadership - your markets are anything but free.
I believe you are using a non standard definition of "free market" here? Also I am not sure I understand what you mean by "excluding a significant proportion of your population from leadership roles". Of course, competency/qualification requirements excludes a large proportion of the population.