Right, but the politics is a means to end here rather than a goal in itself, though Elaida does seem to have a penchant for politics in HERself.

That actually WOULD make a lot more sense. A LOT more. Perhaps Randland would be a very different place had Elaida recognized that her cause was properly theirs, not the Reds. She couldn't see that, took the conventional (especially among Aes Sedai) view that all male channelers were a blight on the world and the only thing that makes the Dragon Reborn different is he's a USEFUL blight so long as he's needed to win the Last Battle. She explains her rationale for us, far better than I could, because it's kinda twisted in the first place. It's hard to see how to get from "the Dragon Reborn must save the world at Tarmon Gaidon" to "all male channelers must die" but she made the trip, somehow, and it broke her.

Right, but it's coincidental one; Elaida went to Andor because of her Foretelling, which she long kept to herself in typical Elaida fashion, indicated that was more critical to the worlds salvation than just joining the already large (among Ajahs) ranks of those roving the world gentling men.

She's both. She definitely serves the invaluable literary purposes you describe (though since we've known Elaida longer it might be more accurate to say Gitara is the flip side of HER. ) But if her actions and personality aren't plausible then whatever other literary purposes she serves are moot. I think she's credible, but I also think she serves a much greater literary purpose. It's true of a lot of characters, but more than any of the others she and Pedron Niall have always illustrated the folly of generally wise, strong and very capable characters, dedicated to the cause of right, who become tools of evil because they think they're SO capable and everyone else SO stupid and/or evil that they have to single-handedly save the world. THEY see everything perfectly, but everyone else is a deluded fool who'll screw up even the simplest tasks they're given, and can thus be given none. THEY are bastions of moral purity, but everyone else is a selfish SOB who'll betray them the moment they have any power, and thus can be allowed none. Of course, that very attitude is the Achilles heel of what would otherwise be the Lights greatest champions (and that's certainly how they see themselves. ) Elaida joining the Red rather than the Green is just another illustration of that, albeit the one that's continuous throughout her presence in the series. And in the end, she must've envied Pedron Nialls fate.

Stuff like this is what makes TWoT more than escapist fantasy.