I think that was the element of her storyline I appreciated the most. Because, of course, the AUDIENCE (and Korra's In-World audience as well!) are all under the impression that the Avatar should be a neutral party... because Roku (maybe) and Aang were, but we get the impression from spirit visits that a. Roku ended up DEEPLY regretting his neutrality, and b. Aang's neutrality is deeply uncharacteristic of Avatars, maybe even uncharacteristic of airbending Avatars.

I mean, we get the impression that Yangcheng was no shirking princess, let alone Kiyoshi. So in that respect Korra is maybe just a reversion to type.