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Like a transgender author making a self-insert slice of life story where someone dies and is reborn with the biological sex that the transgender author always wanted to have... That can totally be wish-fulfillment and a self-insert story.

But it's also not sexual? It's like... Well, it involves one's gender identity and being born the way one always wished to be born as. It's a wish-fulfillment of being happy about being oneself.

OTOH, you also have stories that are like... Well, they just dive into the emotional conflicts of a character that got magically genderbent and are suddenly faced with discomfort with their own body, with needing to adapt to the (often times toxic) social norms that are expected of someone of a different gender. Someone trying to properly understand what gender they identify with...

Those are much more about society and self-identity than about sex.

... And then there are the comedic ones which... Well, they'll often times do some jokes and stuff with the gender change that have some degree of sexuality involved. Usually nothing that actually leads into sex, but sexual jokes or jokes involving the body or the character being embarrassed by going into a hot springs or something.

... And then there are the smut ones which are... Well, smut. Not much more to say.

Basically, it's very nuanced, and there are a lot of different things one can focus on when writing gender bender... So trying to reduce it to a sexual-fulfillment is really reductive and doesn't begin to explore everything that the genre offers.

You're more experienced on that genre than me. Psychologically speaking, I think it's a good question. Redefining sexual identity carries something powerful, more than just waking up and having another face. (redefining who's attracted to you, and who you are attracted to)

For the practicality of classification, genderbent just happen to fit nicely into the recipe of popularity on SH. Beyond that, this is very speculative rambling from me.

For the fulfillment aspect, maybe it would be necessary to understand Gender Dysphoria? What aspects of gender identity pulls to the other side? Is it sexual in nature? Does wearing beautiful skirts or business pants arouse oneself?

As a man, I am a bit self-aware of the core of the emotion that drive my actions. For instance, I can say easily when wanting a good income and healthy body to attract a mate stems from sexual desire. If I fantasize about getting genderbent, it would probably stem from the desire to flee the circumstances associated with the demands of my sexuality.

Yeah, I think my genderbending impulses would be because I'd find being a man chained by his sexual needs is too much of hassle. By seeing the grass is greener for the other side of the sexual quest, I'd want to jump and have the "easy way" and then be disappointed LOL

Anyway, sorry for rambling. Yeah, I agree with your conclusion, it can be seen a reductive classification.
Don't worry though, the goal of the classification is for a loose identification of factors that promotes the success of stories on SH.

For instance, if we broke down the Action genre, maybe we could find subgenre that are ambiguous in their nature of appeal.
When classifying genderbender, it is important to remind the context and purpose of it so as to not misrepresent the genre.

TBH, I didn't even care about the treatment of Genderbender in the classification. I know Jay firmly believes its sexual nature on discord, so I conveyed it but I actually don't have a opinion on it, nor do I believe it's a compelling recipe for popularity.

I think that there is an unfortunate rampant increase of sexual dysphoria caused by hormonal disruptors in plastics, and an increasing needs for people to explore the subject that will increase its popularity in the future. But I am mostly indifferent to genderbend stories ^^"

Each person experiences Gender Dysphoria differently, but as a rule of thumb, it's something that makes you hate your own body.

When a transwoman (as in, a woman that was born with a man's body) starts the transition process, the outcome usually isn't arousal, but rather relief. Comfort. Being able to look at the mirror without crying... This kind of thing.

A transwoman wearing a dress for the first time would probably feel happiness primarily, not arousal.

But of course, different people feel different things. There's no way to say what every single person feels. I'm just giving the rough outline of it.

And thanks for clarifying your instance on it! ^^)/

I see. A gendered person is both the subject and object of attraction, who's equipped with tools (which end-function is to carry out a sexual strategy). A non congruence of the gender identity can be as simple as a mismatch of those tools and how society perceives/allows its usage. This causes an emotional pain of non-sexual nature.