When I first played an rpg with a basic character creator (the demo of bg2 I think, it's been a while), I made a character that was as close to me as possible.

When I was in a period of playing lots of rpg, I tended to make characters that were far from myself and with lots of variation. So more often than not female, but not always.

And now that I play less rpg again, in the rare case that I start a new game, I again make characters that are close to me in looks. Usually an older greyer version, but still recognizably me.

When I was a kid I'd always choose princess peach in mario kart. I think it was my way of subtly projecting my confidence in my own masculinity. Basically showing off lol

On Skyrim, cause I have boob mods,and I love boobs. On any other game I generally play male chatacters cause I am male and that is therefore more relateable to me

For me it sorta depends on how engaged I am in the game or think I will be. My default for third person perspective is female because as others have said you are staring at your character constantly. For cyberpunk I did male as it is not third person except when driving and the whole relationship thing. I did the same for baldurs gate again because of the npc interactions. champions I tended to make males as super heroes are closer to my heart so wanted them to be more like me. Another thing though is in many games females can be made smaller and have a smaller hitbox or have other small effects. I made my dragons dogma and elden ring female. I almost always make my characters as small as possible male or female if third person. Even outside of hitbox your character blocks your view.

Who cares. People have been doing this since the inception of video games. Let people have their fun.