I feel she had a lot of character development before that. To me the appeal of Felicia is precisely that she is fully formed. She would be Black Cat with or without Peter Parker or Spider-man. That's how she was introduced. The dynamic in the Stern/Mantlo era is that she is simultaneously more wordly and cynical than Peter and yet Spider-Man despite being more naive and innocent is the one with the greater sense of reality.
I also think that Felicia was a pretty effective supporting character in Marvel Knights Spider-Man and Sacassia's Sensational Spider-Man series which came out in that time too.
It's not just me. It's also Spider-Man's own long-term editor Jim Salicrup considered the best line editor by Roger Stern, DeMatteis, and Michelinie. He himself said that Felicia's similarity to Selina Kyle always hampers her as a character.I consider this aspects such as this to be engaging storytelling and not a copycat schematic of Catwoman as so many are quick to accuse.
Felicia is a terrific character in Spider-Man's stories but outside of the very specific kind of niche writers and others forced her in, it's hard to get a grasp on her. Hopefully her ongoing will address that somehow.