I partly agree with the second half of your post, but I think you missed the boat on this. The awesome summons and flips and animations aren't at all what Emily was talking about in her criticism, because all of that stuff is barely related to the point of the conversation.
Why should seeing Bayonetta lose her clothing be a "reward" for completing long combos? What purpose does it actually serve? Is there a valid reason outside of being a pretty obvious appeal to men (or females who are attracted to females for that matter)? Taken at face value, when you're getting to that point then Bayonetta does boil down to the same issues that many other female game characters run across; using digital sex as a prized object for the (presumably male) player to strive for. Within the context of the game's setting and storyline, there's no real point for it, so in that way the criticism of Bayonetta is absolutely valid.
...But with that being said, I largely disagree with Emily and those on the anti-Bayonetta side when it comes to the overall package being presented. The whole hair-clothing thing is really the only aspect of Bayonetta's character that I personally dislike, because the potential rationale for it is so paper-thin and unnecessary. Why does Bayo disregard clothing in favor of her magical hair? It's not a requirement of Umbran witches, so outside of a completely nonsensical exhibitionist streak (which is only displayed toward enemies that she otherwise shows a complete disregard for), that choice exists not as an empowering factor of the character, but for the audience's enjoyment. Her other choices and actions, the stripper-pole fighting, crazy posing, dismissive attitude towards men, etc, all work very well for the character and fit into the over-the-top nature of the world.
What I really find kind of strange about this entire debate is this apparent need for sides to be taken, and everybody wants to try and draw definitive conclusions about the character and the series one way or the other. Why can it not be both?
I think it's very hard to deny that Kamiya and company designed Bayonetta with an eye towards the dominatrix sort of sex fantasy, mixed in with Kamiya's usual ridiculous flair. The whole "disappearing-clothes-for-attacks" speaks to it, as does the often-bemoaned cameraman, the references to "climax," the lollipop symbolism, and more. However, out of that fantasy has also stepped an extremely confident, quick, powerful, and determined woman. While sometimes there are games with female protagonists that try to pay fairly little attention to their gender, Bayonetta takes the trend so very far in the other direction that I think it becomes so hard to run her over any sort of real dividing line. I think it's possible that the whole female power fantasy aspect of Bayonetta's character wasn't something that the developers were consciously trying to forge, in fact I personally believe that she was created by and for a lot of the "male gaze," but we may have gotten one of gaming's most independent and free heroines out of it as a side-effect. She's both, and while that conclusion doesn't exactly lend itself well to a largely binary debate, I think it's pretty cool that we can have someone to spark that kind of thinking.
