>>535366585
I genuinely think what happened was Pat Casey pitched her for movie 3, which began planning in late 2022. Fowler was already iffy about her from previous conversations (we know this) and Sega was brought on to discuss her design.
After some mulling it over Paramount was up front saying they can't have Rouge with cleavage in their PG movie for babies.
Sega then had internal meetings about if Rouge's design makes it difficult for her to appear in third party media, as the franchise's second most relevant female character this couldn't stand.

Then, when she appeared in Prime, Sega had a similar situation where Netflix did not want a character with cleavage in their TV series aimed at five year olds learning the power of friendship.

Dream Team was already in development while Prime was running so ultimately she got to keep her boobs for one last hoorah.
When Shadow Generations came out, the third movie was already written and Rouge was rejected from the script for being too hot. Sega took this as a sign that Rouge can't be marketed in the west unless she is dealt with, nor can they replace her as the "Second" female character.

Come Shadow generations, the game directly associated with the movies, Rouge's boobs are removed and Rouge would continue not to sport cleavage in future media.

I don't think it was feminists or hit detection or anything. I think it all rooted in Jeff Fowler in a snowball effect.