You're absolutely correct.
My point was that the WC, as an organization, looks a lot more like a standing army; much more so than it resembles a nation.

Nevertheless, it also has things like meetings to vote, etc, that look kind of more like a civilian government than like a military.

Here's maybe a closer comparison:  some historic mercenary companies had IIRC a voting membership to whom the leaders were beholden, and to whom the leaders had to get a vote on key matters (or at least, this is a common fantasy trope (I'm only sure of a few historic exemplars)... but that's plenty for Jim to model from!).

Got to disagree here. The hero marrying the daughter of the villain that killed his parent(s) is fairly common in fantasy. It's jarring here, because Lara is not a damsel to be rescued but a mature power in her own right that had an equal role in taking down said villain. The key being, we don't know if she'll reform to the hero's morals. She'd have to do quite a bit to earn redemption, but if she really did seek it, she could have 300+ years as Harry's wife if they both survive.

This is an interesting idea, but why would Dierdre have agreed to it?  If she was nemfected she would have to be resisting that infection to agree to be murdered to be freed from it, which is a rather extreme cure in any case.  I think I would rather be put in one of Mab's ice cubes and hope I didn't freeze to death.

My problem with this being the case is we have no reason to suggest that Dierdre had as much ability to resist being taken over than Lea or Cat Sith.  Lea just held herself together long enough to get Mab's help and Nemesis pretty much crushed Cat Sith's efforts to remain himself.  It's not an impossible idea, it just seems a bit far fetched to me.

WOJ on this:
How…how long will they have to wait to find out who will wield the Swords?
We’ll probably get the new wielder of Fidelacchius in Book 14 or 15. Um, Amoracchius is gonna, uh…(Jim chuckles evilly), that’s gonna be apocalypse time by the time we get [unintelligible].  Amoracchius is not one of those Swords that really rampages around the world very often, and when if does, you’ve heard about it, so..."