I've sat on European research councils. I've sat on every committee you can imagine, including the Canada Foundation for Innovation. I've assessed a lot of Canada Research Chair proposals. Decisions are made by committees, not the presidents of NSERC or SSHRC. Committees are indeed diverse, if you want to use the word that shows up left and right these days.
Committees do their work. When I get an application, I do what I call spontaneous bibliometrics, which is what everyone does. If you want to be a tenured professor, but you haven't written an article in five years, you're not going to be a tenured professor. The university's purpose is to advance knowledge, not to represent the population. Its goal is to advance knowledge and train researchers for the future. To the extent that that is its mission, I hire people based on their CVs, but I use my judgment. For example, I take into account the fact that someone who was sick for two years hasn't produced the same output.