One little detail - Gabriel took Nathaniel off the street, turned him into a wereleopard, then started pimping him out again. So the eating to maintain his beast wouldn't be an issue.

The rest I agree with. I mean even just sticking with the pity-horror angle that LKH is locked-on - a lot more could be done with Nat's background.

I think that her characters are constructed from a good skeleton but she can't/won't do any research into how they would have lived during their backstory. Thus, we need up with backstories that seem to be made up of whatever heresay, clichés, and very vague information LKH has right on hand.