Nepotism is as much "hire people for who they are" as DEI is. It's just that nepotism is ages old and DEI is a relatively recent fad.
If OP actually meant "nepotism" then why not just say nepotism and not be so vague?
If the result of political correctness is an inability to point out competency problems (for whatever reasons), then we have major issues.
The issue is that the original comment is just a baseless assertion that Boeing is having issues due to identity politics, and not anything of substance. Not liking those sort of unsubstantiated politically motivated claims is not "political correctness".