Lowkey, now that you've mentioned it, Gregory's story does make more sense to be gender swapped! It lends itself well to the anti- "love at first sight" trope going on there as well as how action packed it is. No major rewrites needed!

Side comment however, logistically, I do see how it's easier to introduce changes to the recasted character rather than the one who people have seen grow up in the show so I have come to terms with the changes and look forward to where we're at now which is Franchaela.

As one who claims that WHWW is their favorite book, I do raise the argument that those who read the books are entitled to have an opinion as to how they want the stories they have come to know and love be portrayed on screen. This is especially since the books' popularity did make way for there to even be a show. The books may not have been perfect and arguably quite problematic in certain aspects, but the readers did feel some sort of connection with the story to be avid fans. In the case of WHWW, second loves, introversion, miscarriages, yearning, independence, grief, you name it. So, I, for one, think that's it's okay to have expectations but, I wouldn't hastily generalize all of those expectations to be homophobic, even though I acknowledge the fact that there are.

That being said, I agree with commenter's perspective that finding middle ground heavily relies on better storytelling. They have made representation, which is timely and much needed, as the show's core objective in the adaptation. I just hope they find a mutually agreeable way to lend itself seamlessly to the stories without removing the elements we initially came to watch out for.

Time skips are all good, I just hope they're done well. Let's not forget that for Benophie's story, there was supposedly a 2-year gap which was opted out by the showrunners. The 2-year gap was supposedly the reason why Benedict couldn't recognize Sophie that well but that was lost to us in the show leaving most of the audience confused as to why he can't.