I'm not sure I understand the problem of there being a "Herko-ness" to anything. I always felt he was good at evoking the mixed horror/beauty that was the EVE setting. He influenced my perception of the EVE universe heavily, at least, and I know he did several others as well.
As for the gender roles, we unfortunately only see a single female spirit. So it's difficult to draw gender conclusions too greatly simply from that one example, especially as Heart-of-the-Forest is depicted as both protected by the Winds and harmed by them, while being a protector and a teacher. The gender relations in most of the empires are poorly defined anyway, aside from a few references in character creation that don't really paint much of a whole picture. In general, New Eden appears to have almost utter equality between the genders. Considering the societal level of New Eden, plus the age of the religion, it doesn't seem too surprising that there might be gender roles defined in it that are not supported in the modern society.