I like those cliches. I just disagree with your sentiment that self-conscious writers (or mcs) lead to better stories since what makes a story better is subjective as some people might have a preferred trope that they like to see in genderbending and others have their own idea of how a story...
Without conflict the story is less interesting. Throughout my years of reading Gender Bender manga and doujinshi I've always found the ones in which the protagonist wants to become a girl and then become a girl pretty generic and/or lame and they're always short because without any conflict...