Here in the US, I don't think DEI was intended to curb business autonomy. Quite the opposite in fact. I'll give you a (sorry, lengthy) example.
Back in, oh probably around 2018 (so right in the depths of DEI), my supervisor offered me the "opportunity" to spend a day at a "women's leadership retreat." Now, they didn't pay a penny for me to go to this it was being offered for free (more on that later) but they're "letting" me take the day off to attend this "valuable professional development opportunity" and since many other women from my company were attending as well, well let's just say I didn't feel had much choice in the matter.
So I dropped my kid off at daycare early (which cost me), made the over-an-hour drive in major traffic to this "retreat." And low and behold, the reason it was "free" was bc it was being facilitated by some new app company. I'm not even sure if they're still in business it was basically LinkedIn but specific to our industry. I sat thru the talks, participated in the group exercises, talked about the reading list that was filled with books like Lean In, and listened to all the other women bloviate about how they're so overwhelmed and so powerless, yet most of the were in a managerial position and never once recognized the power they had to set the tone of or speak up on behalf of their team.
Then the 2 keynote speakers ended the day. They were both women from "historically underprivileged backgrounds", one was the first-ever VP of DEI at a local university and the other was, I s**t you not, a MacArthur fellow. They gave their speeches about feminism and power and yada yada yada and, just they were finishing up I meekly raised my hand and asked, "if we're really talking about eliminating inequality, what are your thoughts on requiring employers to list salary ranges on job listings? We know that keeping salary ranges confidential is probably the #1 reason why salary inequity persists between the sexes. Wouldn't making that legally required simply eliminate the issue altogether?"
There was a slight pause, then the DEI VP went on to talk about how they don't want to lose any quality candidates by listing the salary range, "salary is just one part of an overall compensation package." And then the MacArthur Fellow, who literally was awarded a $1mil grant for all her work in "equity" quickly explained how women need to learn to be better advocates for themselves and, she literally said this exact phrase, "learn to negotiate like a man." My jaw literally hit the floor.
the hosts quickly ended things before I could prod further, so i made the traffic-riddled hour-long drive home, had a late dinner, went to work the next day, got side eye from my supervisor when I dared to submit my mileage for reimbursement bc "the day off and opportunity was so valuable in itself," then had to work thru lunch and several hours late to make up all the work I missed the day before - something my MALE counterparts didn't have to do.
Speaking of my male counterpart, years later I discovered that, even tho he was so incompetent he was eventually fired, he was making significantly more than me. And when he got fired, rather than fill his position they just spread his work out to others, self included, without a penny extra in wages.
DEI exists to maintain inequality, not eliminate it. Businesses literally use it as a smoke screen to make it look like they want to break down barriers when in reality they're building them even thicker in other ways. Just look at the rise in the wage gap between executives and entry/mid level workers. Does it matter that the people who are keeping you perpetually underpaid or underemployed are women, trans, or people of color? Bc that's literally all DEI is about, opening up opportunities for more types of people to become oppressive a holes and corporate shills.