Aloha,
So after reading your post I was curious, bought her and ran a couple of battles. I will say, she is very typical of RN cruisers.
Do not sit broad, Do not try to hold a flank alone, Do not push a flank alone, Always be ready to turn away and fire over your shoulder. Keep BB's at arm's length, especially at the opening of a fight.
That being said, landing shots with her HE, you can do significant damage. Recently I had a tier IX battle where I dealt 75k damage before taking a single hit of damage myself.
With premium consumables and superintendent, you'll have 3 charges of RN RP. Which came in handy recently when I had 1000HP left and literally healed back to almost 3/4 HP.
I will say she has a slight skill gap with her 16.1KM gun range, if she had a spotter, she'd probably do better.
In the end, for me, I enjoy her gameplay. But I am a DD main so I tend to have trained myself to have a bit more situational awareness than most people I suspect.
Just my 2 doubloons.
Mahalo,
-Hapa