"This isn't wholesome because racism" strikes me as the far-fetched take here.
Arguing based on exterior sources is what irks me. I don't know Beastars, but if you point at its ~8 million units where there is such a predator-prey dynamic, I point at the just-as-big RWBY where this is a metaphor for racism (probably, I'm not up-to-date on it). Then you name Zootopia with its dozen of millions of viewers, I'll call Arknights with as many downloads, and we achieved nothing by bringing external tropes into this.
If you want to interpret this that way, fine, many did. But I couldn't. It reminds me a bit of the discussion on Clumsy Call last month, with a similar disparity between those who recognized an uncomfortable dynamic and those who didn't.