I think Atwood, and probably many more like her, are just quietly repeating the platitudes and hoping it goes away.

Atwood is not JKR. She does not have billions of dollars in wealth from a massive media franchise. According to a quick Google, she's worth circa $20 million, which is a fuckload, but not "I changed a generation of youth culture and corporations are never gonna drop me" rich like JKR. She can't just be as brave - OK maybe she can but maybe she can't, contracts and shit - so she goes with it, because the alternative is an outright deluge of violent misogyny masquerading as "feminism" and "trans acceptance".

She knows. There's no way she doesn't know. She's a well-read old-school feminist who wrote one of the masterpieces of feminist literature and changed many perceptions about what misogyny was and could become. And she has to balance that legacy against getting labeled an "anti-feminist TERF" and getting cancelled, which, I can't imagine is an easy decision. But the action to keep the masquerade going is so simple - just say TWAW and keep quiet. The fact that an outspoken long-time feminist can't say the truth is very telling of just how much power TRAs have, and I sincerely hope she's one of the first to speak out as the tide changes and it is no longer a threat to her life and livelihood to do so.