He could have done that while still leaving Steve young and a future option. And even if she did fall in love with him, that doesn't mean her relationships with her mother and friends wouldn't get focus, Or even most of the focus. She did more than hang out with Steve in the Golden Age as well.
They modernized it by not having her fall in love with him while he was unconscious and not having it be her primary motivation for leaving the island. Its not necessary to remove the possibility of her loving a man to make the story feminist. They didn't throw the baby out with the bath water. And Rucka used the romance and still arguably put greater focus on the dynamic with Barbara. And LoWW had plenty of dynamics with other women as well and the romance was still there. It doesn't have to overshadow anything.