Yup, I think they wanted other characters to shine so they had her out for it. That said, I think it's more the memories of Gyrich that's keeping her...
Yup. Or to put another spin on it, the X-Men are usually presented as more of an idealized family - trust, baseball games and holidays together, easy...
Every character ever created has at least some people who hate them and you will find Tim haters (or critics) if you poke around enough. The point is...