I'd argue in modern times it's become more sensationalized. These people always existed in my opinion but they were much easier to shun out due to a lack of a proper platform. With the rise of social media, as many of these people sharing similar ideologies come together to form groups. These groups can appear to be the loudest, but are usually the smallest. Anti-vaxxers, Flat-Earthers, etc. These concepts have existed for a long time. Some more than others, but with social media, these people's worldviews are giving an equal platform as everyone else. And as a result, you see more it.
There were definitely more PC groups that existed years ago. The only difference is that there wasn't really an easy way to conglomerate. You would have to actively search for these people in order to have that understanding be acknowledged, but the benefits of this is that sometimes that ideology would die out over time with no one validating it OR it just died with the person themselves.
"Get woke, go broke" is very interesting because people tend to think of woke as "well SJWs obviously!" but I feel it encompasses more of the issues with social media itself. Everyone is given an equal platform in a sense that you can make an account and tailor it to your needs. Now you can find plenty of other "woke" folks to share your ideologies with all at the push of a button. It's much easier to feel validation from your beliefs when 100's of other people share the same belief I do so it must be true, right? I personally see it as a way of people trying to form connections in a way they couldn't really do years before, but at what cost exactly?
Short answer: A lot. Long answer: Companies obviously noticed these people and sometimes give them a platform themselves. Some of them might agree with them within those circles. (It's much easier to hire people you know or will always agree with (to manipulate).) It's very easy for people of similar experiences to group together with social media. HOWEVER, I think the BIG THING is that it's usually for money. Obviously we can tell it's not working in most cases, but many of these companies are willing to "crack" a code to get this audiences's money. And hey, if they can do that while looking PC, they get good PR too. Plenty of gullible people are willing to take most companies at their word. If you can give a mediocre project, save the most money, and still look good in the public eye, it's all good. The problem is...reality isn't like that.
Normal people are more concerned with themselves than needing to align with ideologies. Don't get me wrong, we all have our values that we learn over time or adapt from our environments. These can be good or bad. However, most normal people aren't the ones screaming on twitter about needing a movie to be a certain way or else it's _phobic. Those people are complainers who will never be satisfied. You can never be "woke" enough because there was never a goal to begin with. They will never spend money because they have contempt for concept of even getting a solution to begin with. You could give them everything they want and they will still NEVER pay for it. Because even they know that it's not that important.
The notion of "get woke, go broke" fails because it satisfies no one other than complainers who will never be fans, buy products, or even support these corporations. AND YET, this is still presented to normal people as something to be accepted when many normal people don't care. Many super fans of anime/manga/tv or whatever fandom won't accept it either because many of those people on a surface level, only came for what they asked for. You won't see weebs complaining about their kawaii waifu anime shows needing _characters to be good or else it's _phobic. Why? Because the story and characters fulfill a purpose that satisfy that niche. No one really expects anything else from that and you learn to enjoy it or you don't. No normal anime fan cares if characters like Goku are black or not (which is funny considering how many black people like DBZ, it's become it's own subgenre) because it was never important. The cool action scenes and character writing was more than enough to be entertaining/enjoyable. The purpose of entertainment was fulfilled and now companies/artists/authors/storytellers make money from it.
"Get woke go broke" COMPLETELY IGNORES the concept of supply/demand. You are not providing an audience anything substantial with your bland rip-off movie about a group of _minorities going into space. It has been done before AND BETTER. You have competition and it's fierce. Woke media makes this mistake all the time. Companies assume they're the first when in reality, they're dead last. Their idea is tired and when you do nothing with it, no one will remember it. You won't get any of that attention, even with normies because it's not worth looking into. People just want entertainment and you can't have that with wokeness being the main point and everything else afterwards.
Characters being race-swapped not out of telling an interesting story, but for PC-ness makes it feel less like a interesting idea and more of needing to have tokens to satisfy this constantly complaining crowd and look good in the public eye. And for what? People who don't buy anything? People who aren't even interested in anything you make other than on a superficial level? How many race swaps have we seen that almost never get heard of again or fall into obscurity? How many "woke" initiatives silently get pushed out when companies realize the can't make a good buck? Quite a few. These companies that aren't fully woke clearly don't care, but they're also so desperate to cash in on the movement it makes me wonder if they think it's even a worthy investment to begin with or if they're just scared of a potential backlash.
They're wasting more money to protect their brand by building up the likes and positive comments with bots. 
