Maybe the best course of action is establish your terms on that basis -- "if you hire us for a particular project or problem, we will not exclude solutions/resp

Maybe the best course of action is establish your terms on that basis -- "if you hire us for a particular project or problem, we will not exclude solutions/responses that highlight or challenge underlying systemic causes outside the scope of the engagement." If not, then the advice you got could be summarized as "figure out what you're being paid to do and do it."