Yeah, George deserves the benefit of the doubt with culturally-coding characters in a way that JK Rowling does not. I know it sounds like I’m going off on Rowling a lot, but she’s become the face of “separate the art from the artist.”
That “lived-in universe with a cultural heritage and history” is why I appreciate the Avatar: The Last Airbender series so much. Bryan and Mike went out of their way to give the four nations their distinctive cultures and bring a sense of history to the world. Heck, fan artists make renderings of past avatars based on statues seen in the series to expand upon their work. I’m not the biggest fan of The Legend of Korra, but I appreciate how Bryan and Mike tried to move the series forward and how they had to fight Nickelodeon tooth-and-nail at times. The Kyoshi novels are a fine prequel, doing a lot to expand upon the history of the series’ world and its historical figures.