I thought I made my point in the first post - gay characters that don't fit the narrative should not be added to the story, they become empty stand-ins for whatever political point the author wishes to make. BS himself stated he did for that reason, though of course he worded it nicer. What's there to argue here? I'm not changing my opinion. You're very free to disagree of course.
I don't think you can say that BSand was making a political statement. He included open gay men because fans had noted it was an obviously missing overt element, largely because RJ said they were there, to the WOT world. To be fair RJ never really showed a whole lot of homosexuality beyond some euphemisms and stated it was an unremarkable part of the mentality of the universe. While we know situational lesbianism was common during Aes Sedai training, only 2 women are overtly noted as being lesbians (Galina and Seonid).
I think Sanderson made a bigger misstep by using stereotypes of "fussy gay men" in the characterization. RJ didn't really fall into that trap. I really just believe RJ didn't give it much thought, but because he dropped a few tidbits about the women the fans picked up and ran with it. He clearly didn't want to include it as a "thing" but if you paid attention to the series there are plenty of men who could easily have been assumed were gay. Basil Gill, older, unmarried and easily could have been in love with Thom. Howal Gode was obviously a "dandy" and could have been seen as gay. The Innkeeper from Baerlon could have been gay too ... again, older. And unmarried and horrified when asked if his cook was his wife. Honestly Aginor could have been gay without a lot of shock and Aran'gar was clearly bisexual post-transmigration, would not have been a big stretch to assume Balthamel had already been bisexual. Graendal was bisexual, it's not hard to imagine that Rhavin could have been as well.
What we didn't see that I feel would have been the way Sanderson should have gone, was a healthy loving truly homosexual relationship. Show us a couple ... how awesome would Vandene and Adelease have been if they had been a couple rather than biological sisters. What about Bera and Kiruna being married to each other instead of just friends? I think I would have enjoyed if Basil Gill was actually in love with Thom or had found love in Lamgwin rather than tacking in Breane.
Instead BSand chose to just give us a couple of sentences that made it obvious that gay men did actually exist and weren't really noted as "strange". Which is a nice sentiment when you consider how anyone in WOT universe who was considered an outsider would have been labeled Darkfriend.
