Story motifs don’t have the same meaning for all authors/characters.

Eg. a common feminist motif is a woman shown not needing protected by a man.

But trans women already don’t have frailty or needs recognized in us; men already don’t want to protect us.

So stressing a trans female main character as being strong and independent and not needing others doesn’t have the same context and isn’t necessarily “empowering.”

We are already sent the message that we have exceptional “strength” that we need to restrain.

This isn’t the same as saying that only showing trans women as vulnerable is good. It’s that what is nourishing or positively counter-cultural for women (in this case) is not universal and motifs that are taken for granted for cis women aren’t necessarily for trans women.

This of course applies in many other ways, such as contrasting white women and women of color.