I think it depends on the situation and reason why it's being done. If someone is changing or creating a character a certain way solely for the purpose of "representation" then I don't see how it's a positive at all. To me, that makes it feel like this one aspect is just to be put on display like a circus act. There isn't any care about the meaning behind the trait or character at all. It's just a ploy and nothing else. It's more disrespectful, imo. Look at Dr Who as a perfect example. The Tumblr crowd was going crazy and wanting desperately for a female doctor and the creators decided to cave and go for it. I haven't ever watched the show, but my husband is an avid watcher and he said that season was absolutely terrible.
What's annoying is when one of these remakes are done, people start complaining about the changes and then others scream about how those people are just racist. God forbid fans have concerns over how creators are suddenly changing the way their beloved characters have been. And god forbid a creator make a change to a character.
There was also outrage, ABSOLUTE OUTRAGE, over the Promised Neverland live action because Crone isn't black in the live action. Right. The ONLY thing that matters about the character is her skin color. It doesn't matter how well written the character is or how good the actress is. The only thing that matters is that she doesn't have dark skin... in a country that is something like 99% Japanese.
IMO, race/culture or even gender and sexuality... I think it's important to respect these things, but they are not inherently sacred, like something to be protected, something to put on a pedestal at all times.
As for my characters from my main comic, their races could easily be switched around since the comic is pretty culturally diverse and the plotline is one that affects the entire world. So this is something I took into account while creating the characters and story.
For my other comic though, it's largely based on my own life growing up and I happened to grow up in an area that is like 99% white. Through all of the stories, there is one POC (at least that I can remember off the top of my head). That's just the way the story was written. If the characters' races were changed though, I still don't think that's a big deal. If I grew up in a predominantly POC area and wrote the characters as POC, I hope that people would still care about the characters and story in the same way.