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.
He was a loved and influential chronicler of EVE. I, personally, find that his writing tends to push through my zone of "this is deep and intense" to "I'm having trouble accepting this seriously any longer". That's a matter of personal taste. I think it's great that people like you and Graelyn loved an EVE-writer's work so much, and I agree that exposure to Herko's writings strongly colours some players' perceptions of the world of EVE. And every player of a Caldari character should know at least
Cold Wind.
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.
Indeed, we don't know whether we're seeing a biased selection. Do you think we are, though?
First for a question from me: have we heard of Heart-of-the-Forest before? My recollection of the Caldari pantheon was that it was all male and only the winds, alongside a Shinto-like ancestor cult. My impression of the Caldari homeworld was that it was either an ice planet or tundra, too cold for trees, although I'm less certain of that and the
current description of the world gives it a temperate equatorial zone and good productivity.
I find the addition of Heart-of-the-Forest makes for an internally-plausible mythic balance, and quite a powerful one. And I find myself thinking of it as "Wendy and the Lost Boys". I also wonder how it would be used in rhetoric, cultural references, and the personal branding of aspiring executives.
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.
Oh, there's been a long, hard dark age living in tunnels under the surface while the marooned planet progressed through its partial terraforming, followed by huge changes. It's quite possible--even likely--that there have been major social changes. But what was the dark age culture, and why? And what are things really like now?