Because Kathy wasn't Batwoman in the new universe, Bette lost her motivation to be a hero, so Wolfman and Perez substituted it for the Robin fangirl.
It was a ghastly motivation. Mind you, Karen initially became Bumblebee to help her boyfriend look more impressive. But at least that was a boyfriend, not a celebrity crush. And it made her working with Ray in the YJ cartoon funnier, since he became The Atom to help his girlfriend look more impressive (she said she'd only marry him after she made a success of her career).

Can't say I had much feeling for Bette even before that, though. But no feeling is better that cringing. I recently thought that version of Bette dating with Booster Gold 1980s Booster Gold would be kinda fun.

It wasn't until the Beast Boy miniseries that she started to recover.
I liked her pretty well there. Hated Gar's never-before-mentioned cousin showing up because it really doesn't work with his backstory (at least his original backstory, it may have changed by then). I mean, it pretty much made as little sense as Dick having an aunt Harriet.

And then Batwoman 2011 happened and all her development went out the window just so she could be a little mini-Kate
Haven't read it (avoided pre-Rebirth New 52 for the most part). I did think she sounded too much like a copy-Kate. But then, becoming Batgirl originally was copying Kathy. I do feel like removing the original familial relationship left Bette sort of adrift and without a place, and that it doesn't really transfer well to Kate once they made Kate and Bruce related (which I would have preferred not happen).

I'd like a new origin story for her, a good one. But what would it be? What age would she be when debuting? Why? In what city. Thought about it for headcanon reboot, but come up with no good idea. But I guess it's off-topic for this thread.