I don't really view Ben as being part of 90s extreme other than maybe his costume with it's extra pouches and all but as a character he didn't fit the mold of 90s x-treme.
That being said I do think fans who are unfamiliar with the character assume that's what he is and that makes him easy dismiss. I wouldn't be too surprised if Ben's look in Damnation with the big guns was PAD giving fans what he thought they wanted. As in Ben is a character that originated in the 90s when everyone was a Cable wannabe so his fans will appreciate this.
Both Azrael and Cyborg Superman have stuck around but I think DC is better than Marvel about not throwing these kinds of characters away and they can't really step on Batman or Superman's toes since Azrael is an anti-hero and Hank Henshaw is flat out villain.
In truth Ben probably has more in common with Steel or Kon-El (both are clones) although Ben was a much better character from the get-go whereas Superboy took a while to get there or Wally West and Kyle Rayner. Like I said DC is much better at keeping these characters around even when they are not in the starring role and for the talk of Marvel having multiple Spider characters around characters they still prefer one definitive version and a big part of Ben's story was the mystery of whether he was the real Peter Parker. I do think for an ongoing series Ben would need a hook other than just being another Spider-Man character.