Taylor at least made an effort to respect the character and create a bridge between who she was before and who she is now. However his run did have some major flaws. And I agree that Laura did feel a bit off.
I liked Tamaki’s Laura a bit better, and Gabby was written more like a person than an anime character in her book, but other than the first story it wasn’t a great run in the end.
Pretty much everyone else who has written Laura around that timeframe has done a horrible job.