Exactly what demographic do you suppose they're trying to appeal to? The demo of chicks into action movies is pretty thin at best, so you'll have most women rushing out not to watch it, and most likely flush the franchise for most men as well. People in general not watching it. Not a good business decision, when you have an established money maker, even as expensive as those movies are to make. I'd go even odds it would fail so hard at the box office it would be the last Bond film ever. What's wrong with leaving something alone, anyway?
It's Hollywood. No film, play book, comic, or game is sacred. That's their business. Hollywood has a very long tradition of changing the race/sex of characters, changing locales and culture, and pretty much bastardizing the creators original intent. In the past, it's paid off handsomely in a good number of features, others complete flops; but obviously, it has earned enough that the practices continues.