To me it seemed like the dev made a deliberate effort in this episode to row Clem's character back a bit and make her more palatable (even if she still wants to get on Luke's nuts).
The
phone conversation making it seem like she was a reluctant part of the whole corruption drug shemozzle in particular seemed like an attempt to mitigate the earlier scene where she's shown
gleefully drugging and abusing a sex slave. It didn't click for me, but maybe it'll work for others.
The bit where she mentions (and Kathryn echoes) that
some of the women working the gloryholes are actually there voluntarily, i.e. a casual admission that others aren't, was maybe less of a brag than she intended it.
As for Kathryn, I think the main issue with the flashback and prequel might be that it
establishes a canonical past for her, against which her current behaviour can be judged.
In the current game (flashback aside) she is not portrayed as sexually inexperienced, she's able to throw down in the bedroom, but she comes across as very naïve about other people's motivations and dangers. The only way, e.g., the much-maligned scene in the park can make even a little bit of sense is if Kathryn has never come across anyone trying to take advantage of her before. The flashback flies in the face of that.
(But again, it may play differently for others and I'm not really in the audience for this game as it's currently headed, so YMMV. Just thinking out loud.)