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I didn't read the article or the paper. However, those aren't parallel statements, as currently written. The percentage of boys comfortable with girl protagonists could be higher than 5%. The percentage of girls who prefer boy protagonists could be lower than 22%.
Heroism generally involves some combination of self-sacrifice, self-improvement, hyper-agency, hyper-competency, physical and/or mental strength. Based upon their Lived Experiences of interacting with boys/men and girls/women, it'd be sensible that readers (whether it be boys, girls, men, or women) would more easily suspend disbelief for a male hero than a female heroine. And that girls/women would find a male hero more plausible than boys/men a female heroine.
It's like how preteens will more readily accept teenaged or adult heroes than vice versa, teenagers will more readily accept adult heroes than vice versa. And adults are usually disinterested in works where the protagonists are preteens or teenagers (sometimes even young adults)—a common gripe is that even kid side characters are a negative value-add to a story, just a source of annoyance, "idiot plot," and plot armor.
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