"As a person who grew up in a place where discrimination based on gender/age/race was not really a thing, this strikes me as insane!"

It would behoove you to first try to empathize with those who did live in these kinds of places & learn about the history of education & discrimination in America. Then you may have some better perspective on why there are systemic reasons for why the diversity numbers for technology companies is so low (and maybe you would get an idea of why thats even important).