Serious Q about the women in Angel especially re: Season 5

Its been discussed before about the women in Angel vs. Buffy the series getting less agency. Ignoring the canon comics (Seasons 8-12 of Buffy and the Angel & Faith and Spike and willow spinoffs) -- how do you see Cordelia fitting in to Season 5 of Angel and characters like Nina and Gwen being given a higher role? (Gwen i know didn't appear at all).

I think it would have rounded out some of Season 5 and Cordy still coudl have had the same antagonist (to Wolfram& Hart's mechanisms) arc, and we could have avoided the sausage fest that killed off all the female characters or ignored them aside from ironically Harmony, who was one of the only survivors of the finale apocalypse. I think it would have brought a lot to the show despite how much I loved Cordelia's goodbye episode ("You're Welcome 5x12 is in my top 5 Buffy or Angel episodes).