You make quite a few good points about Whateley. However, despite my own critical (and negative) review of it, I will respectfully disagree with a few of your points. The characters vary from story to story, and by author to author; it has the advantage of multiple viewpoints, but the disadvantage of instances of inconsistent writing. I have fewer objections to the second and third point; as you said, it's reminiscent of the pre-Dark Age of comics. I don't have a great deal of affection for them, but I don't dislike them either; I'd say that it varies depending on the person reading them. And I have no objection to the fourth point; it is a fetish. I was personally disappointed that they didn't get into the mental states of the obviously large change; it's the equivalent of writing a vampire story where someone changes from human to vampire, and the next night are having the time of their lives.
Overall, this is a good review; I apologize if it seems negative or overly critical.
I'll also add that not all of the characters are genderbent. It's just that the main crew happen to live in Poe, a cottage where everyone is genderbent, queer, or something more complicated. The nature of the cottage is somewhat insular, so naturally all of these main character have the majority of their friends in the same setup. There are other characters, like Aquerna or the members of the Writer's Club, who have the exact same gender they started with.
That said, the writing does vary greatly, especially within Team Kimba. Personally, my headcanon has almost all of the Team Kimba stories as in-universe fanfiction someone wrote about "the early years" of a famous team. It makes the varying characterization, occasionally clumsy dialogue, and Mary Sue traits much more enjoyable.
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A More Intelligent, More In-depth Review
So earlier on this website I apparently posted a review here. I don't remember writing said review at all, but that being said a better review is in order.
Let's break this down, shall we?
First off the characters, they're creepy. Mostly because all of the characters are either emotionless, or just so kind that it comes off as forced. This is not intended, as evidenced by the way the plot goes. If you really needed a reason to read this the characters are not it.
Second, let's talk about the plot. It's reminiscent of the silver and gold age comics of DC and Marvel fame, where all the evil people are simply evil because "I'm evil!", but it's even worse because the good people are good because they don't have anything they want to protect from these evil mutants. A very large majority of them were betrayed by their fellow humans, many more of them rejected from society, so why the hell are they protecting it? It all seems like a very forced author appeal, that people more powerful than us would protect us even if we hated them. Most often, the inverse is true, that people more powerful work only to increase their own power. This is an aspect of the X-Men comics as well, but there's no reason why this webnovel should have to be exactly X-Men but for transformation fetishists. I'll get to this later. If you were looking for a good plot, you won't find it here.
Third, the setting. It is in a world where both science and magic exist. In my previous review I mentioned that it's odd. Magic needs a form. It is not just an excuse to fix plot holes. Get it right, authors. My main point which I neglected to mention in the other review was that the magic is just duct tape used to fix plot holes and is never fully explained, it's illogical. If you were looking for a good setting, well... it's exactly X-Men's.
Fourth, let's talk about the target audience. This is blatantly a wishing hole for the author's fetishes and desires. At least that's what I hope, because otherwise they're just trying to appeal to an audience they're not part of. Irrevocably, it is for the MTF transgender and transformation fetishists out there. Sure, not that there's anything wrong with that, but there are better ways to be spending your time.
So, the only reason to read this is if you have the fetish, which I do not. Therefore, I don't enjoy Whateley.