They turned Mulan into a Rey clone; that's all you need to know. Why bother creating a flawed and vulnerable character that gains the viewer's respect through hard work, perseverance and resourcefulness when you can just tack on magical plot-solving heritage and thus cut out the middleman entirely? Worked well with Rey, didn't it?
Also, remember how in the original, Shan Yu didn't care one bit that Mulan was a woman? All that mattered to him was that she was responsible for destroying his army and he took her as seriously as any other enemy. Well it would seem that was just way too progressive for modern audiences because Mr. Khan over here can't go 5 minutes without reminding you how much he hates women...because, you know, overcoming segregation matters more than overcoming your enemy through skill and ingenuity.
A 200 million dollar female power fantasy -- that's what this is.
