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Could this not be explained by the vastly different lived-experience of man and woman?
These stories exist within a culture, with moral lessons addressing current social ills.
The heroine thinks there is a flaw. And that thought was put into her head (and the heads of other women) by an oppressive patriarchal society.
The tragic event -- it is not one specific event that happened to the heroine, but rather a continuous and systemic oppressive event that happens to all women everywhere.
As such, the heroine's story addresses a societal issue, rather than an individual one
I think this is onto something but also missing a key step. The "lived-experience" that a flaw that that a woman thinks she has but is actually reflective of a continuous and systemic oppressive event is in itself a narrative that is taught to many women (and men) who then go on to write characters that reflect the narrative that's been taught to them about their lives.
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That's a thought I've had as well. Maybe the heroine's journey is the way it is because of the fact that women are different from men. Struggle for women is different from struggle for men.
When I go through a breakup or a death or a struggle, as a man, I deal with it. I sit in the pain, I learn about myself and the world. But I also am likely to engage in self-destructive behaviors. My experience is such that I am forced to grapple with the thing on it's own, on my own. Often with a great deal of examination of why I'm shitty, how I contributed to said bad thing.
When women I know go through a bad thing, they call upon their network, they have endless supporters (even if said supporters are superficial and transactional), but they have their support that insists they are great and the thing is actually horrible and not their fault. Women struggling involves them calling upon their vast social network of mostly female supporters. There isn't a concept of loneliness in one's shittiness for any women I know.
The heroine's journey simply resonates with women, and men think it's asinine. Women probably don't resonate with the hero's journey in the same way that men do either.
Whether one or the other is more or less "good" depends on the audience.
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