saying "yuri is for the male gaze" is only possible if you have never read yuri... at all like, there are works that are meant for a male(?) audience but they are just a small minority in a genre that is clearly written from women for women (can't remember a single one that is not hentai tho, but pretty sure they are somewhere there)
what i would agree is that there is many "yuri bait" in anime that never resolves and is probably meant for fetishization but even then some of that can be simplified as "author didn't made it explicit to avoid backlash on something and the fandom can't accept anything that is not explicitly said"
RANT OFF
and yes. Josei is really a category full of gems. there are so many good stories there but usually requires some work to discover and to get
I am watching a bunch but the only one I consider good is Kusuriya no Hitorigoto. I'm also watching Frieren but this second part has been quite bad and I barely care about anything, so it doesn't count