It does get misused in that exact way sometimes. I’m from Mexico, these cases have been making big headlines here for a while now, some prosecutors are misclassifying cases as femicide to grab attention to their political careers.

Local one a couple of years ago where a dude ran over a woman. Local prosecutor was pushing for femicide, fortunately it was moved to manslaughter as it should have been from the start. Not everything constitutes a hate crime and cases like that (in my opinion at least) would make the distinction meaningless

I live nearby where this happened.

As a side note, local authorities have been closing down a lot of shops and restaurants in the aftermath. Safety practices and building codes are basically never followed, local authorities are bribed left and right to look the other way.

The whole state is trying to catch up on years of buildings without permits, inspections, etc.