Well, I can't comment since I'm not reading Checkmate anymore, but BW makes it sound pretty bad. I don't recall Rucka's Checkmate ever being outright villainous in any way, though. They were more lax with casualties under Terrific than they were under Alan but the core of their moral righteousness was pretty closely maintained.
No, they weren't perfect, and yes, they did discuss the possibility of killing the Kobra babies, but Rucka knew what he was doing when he placed someone like Mr. Terrific in the Royals' ranks--the reader could rest easy knowing that even if they discussed it to kingdom come, Terrific is not the kind of man who would ever allow a decision like that to stand. There was just enough doubt about that to create good drama, but there was still an underlying sense that Rucka understood the rules and wouldn't really go through with it. Rucka's Checkmate wouldn't stand for that sort of thing; if they did, they would no longer exist because the real heroes, like the very same Superman they deputized, would've torn them apart brick by brick eventually. That's exactly the sort of thing Max stood for and Waller was trying to push Checkmate back to, and it's exactly the sort of thing that pulled the other Royals together and made them oust Waller.