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They also had interests outside of "nerd" culture, and tended to live lives that had included more than comic book experiences. 

 The dearth of life experience beyond "average middle-class nerd", is telling in the characterizations and narratives. There's a reason that King Kirby's rumbles felt genuine and authentic compared to more "true to life" artists. His experiences resonated through his pages.

I don't mean to say that one needs to be raised on the Lower East Side getting in gang fights to do action comics. More that many creators having a kind of unified nerd background has contributed to the breadth of content within the super hero genre shrinking.

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I think this is a little of a little from column A, a little from column B. With a heaping helping of "it's creatively bankrupt, but F***ing easy, so let's do it."

For one, yes, absolutely, more toys. The comics account for chicken feed for Disney, but I'd hazard a shot in the dark that the licensed merchandise adds up to a King's ransom.

As far as conspiracy, it wouldn't be the first time that the claim of  Marvel/Disney moving the characters far off model so as to engage in copyright/trademark/legal shenanigans has been levied against them. There was a big stir in the 1980s over all the costume redesigns being an attempt to move the characters from the initial vision of them, to help circumvent possible claims made in lawsuits by the creative talents over the ownership of said characters. 

...it also could have been the Spider-Man redesign being very popular with the kids at the time, and an attempt to try something similar with the rest of the line. 

 Who knows? I'm not a conspiracy guy. I also wouldn't put much past Disney in regards to being aggressive, and at times underhanded, with IP law.

As I would imagine is the almost-entirely inexplicable tendency to gender-neutralize every trademark in their catalog as well... If having the word "Man" in your title isn't going to determine the gender of the title character, as is the case with the upcoming Iron Man book well, then anything goes, I suppose... And Marvel apparently feels that's an important stride to make, or at least publicize...