I'm not willing to extent trust to Squeenix on this either and mako-lies makes excellent points.

Although, once a game ships and is in the hands and minds of players, players create their own explanations for characters' motivations. I thought that the body design for the original Lara Croft was insultingly objectified for the male-gaze and it completely turned me off from the series. Meanwhile, academic research done by feminists with critical theory training when interviewing pre-teen girls uncovered very different feelings about Lara: female role-model, someone they wanted to be friends with, they fantasized about going on adventures beside Lara while playing the game, etc. So... idk. It's all very complex.