Animal Crossing gender, crafting, time travel explained by Nintendo in an interview with Washington Post

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New Horizons’s deserted island concept can be traced back to right after the Japanese release of Animal Crossing: New Leaf in 2012. Early development began shortly after (...)
Kyogoku said the development cycle for New Horizons kick-started before the team even began “thinking or knowing about Nintendo Switch hardware."

Crafting

Adding crafting was also a way to avoid players from running out of things to do during off hours when shops close, an issue in previous Animal Crossing games.

Gender

relates to the team’s overall feeling that “society is shifting to valuing a lot of people’s different identities.”
“We basically wanted to create a game where users didn’t really have to think about gender or if they wanted to think about gender, they’re also able to,” she said.

Time travel

Time traveling is discouraged, but Kyogoku and Nogami don’t consider it cheating.
“We think that in order for the players to play for a very long time, and also for players to share the experience with their friends or family, we do think that playing without traveling would probably be the ideal way,” Nogami said.
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“Adding all the seasonal events by updates wasn’t our way to shun away time travel by any means," Kyogoku said. "But Animal Crossing is a game that users are able to play and enjoy throughout the year.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2020/03/23/nintendo-explains-philosophy-behind-animal-crossings-big-changes-like-gender-expression-terraforming/