I think "modding" - as in, games that allow their assets to be fiddled with by just about anyone, and in doing so, creating a new marketplace of aesthetics and wants - could be a useful angle of enacting this kind of change.
Skyrim, for example, has a few modders who do stuff like "modest female armors" that plugs boob-windows, makes sculpted breast armor look less like anatomical breasts, and other changes that still stays true to the original design. And the feedback from users on those mods are often very positive and appreciative.
If more games were open for modding, I could see a loosely organized modding group forming - "the sensible outfit compatriots" - that offer alternatives to bad design in otherwise good games.
There's a risk that, unless you're a prominent writer for a major outlet, or are very active on a prominent discussion forum (or on forums for individual game developers), a lot of the energy of these discussions don't translate into actual change (and that the momentum behind the discussion has to be built up again and again from zero, everytime the topic is raised).
More modding-availability would offer avenues of enacting direct change by taking the matters into their own hands, and organize with like-minded.
I am aware that just opening up games for modding might be seen as letting developers off the hook ("just fix whatever you whiny guys are bothered by yourself through mods, if it's so awful!") but the direct ability to modify assets to your liking is still valuable enough that it's worth championing for on its own.
It makes players more engaged with the game for longer periods of time, and has the added benefit of being an avenue for people learning entirely new skills like Blender/3DMax or Photoshop/Gimp (or social skills through collaborations on a project with other strangers you would never have talked to if it wasn't for your shared interest in adding or changing some part of the game). It's basically a win-win for everyone (though not all games will be equally suitable for a thriving modding scene).
Adding modding-options also don't mean healthy discussion and think-pieces suddenly won't be made and written. But what modding can do, is to illustrate that there is a need and a want for something, that you can demonstrate by a mod file's popularity. Basically, you do both: you keep good discussion going, while also push for more opportunities of individual agency in terms of shaping how the game's characters look.
It would also shift the discussion in terms of user-engagement from passive ("just vote with your dollar" which doesn't work; developers can't decipher the reason you didn't buy their product simply by you not buying their product) into the active ("a lot of these mods that make female armors and outfits less sexualized and more practical seem to be really well received by users, and downloaded by tens of thousands of individuals").
I do mods, though very rarely clothing/outfits, but working on one that sorta deals with females bodies, and having to make judgement calls for things like breast size and protrusion for the last couple of weeks has put the topic on my mind.