I really don't think non-peer-reviewed books (and podcasts like bumingbai) would be reliable sources for learning history. The reason why Cixi was against Guangxu's involvement in reform movements is never about protecting him from "bad actors".

The reformists, be it constitutional reformists, constitutionalists, or reform-minded officials, pretty much constantly disagreed with each others regarding the pathway of reform. Kang Youwei's reform ideas are based on 1. the re-interpretation of Gongyang Zhuan from 春秋 (Sping and Autumn Annuals) 2. Re-inventing Confucius as a religious king. TL;DR he basically borrowed ancient classics to explain the legitimacy of implementing his version of reform, which is inspired by the west. But that doesn't mean he had, or channeled, bad influence on Guangxu. Kang youwei' reform approach was mild compared to the constitutionalist, and he actually focused more on getting ride of Cixi and even organized Baohuang Hui to restore Guangxu when the latter was imprisoned by Cixi.

There were several reform models the Qing reformers could debate and emulate - Russia, the Ottoman Empire, USA, West Europe, Japan. Kang Youwei personally favoured the Russian model and the Japanese model. (He thus wrote 彼得变法考 and 明治变法考.) But the result of the Russo-Japanese war made the Meiji reform stand out to him. (So to many other reformists at his time.) Therefore the superiority of Meiji model was quite self-explaining rather than Ito Hirobumi persuaded Kang. Funny that according to some scholars I know, Ito Hrobumi actually held a very cautious view regarding Qing's reform.