I think the term "woke" is somewhat pejorative. The data used to train AI models suffers from decades of white upper and middle class bias. It is obviously a ham fisted attempt to counteract that, so yes, of course it is by design.
And that's why it's pejorative. Because people with whom it is associated are doing things like this. If they were known for feeding orphans and supporting the ailing, then the term wouldn't be used in pejorative sense. Since they are known for ham-fisted attempts to push their ideology, which are so badly done that they stand in the way of solving any existing problems instead of helping it, and actually make everything worse - the term acquires pejorative sense. What they are doing is bad, so they get the negative word to describe it.