I read the originals as they came out, & got the 1st print as a Christmas gift...so yeah.
I stand by the question, tho. Norman Spinrad made the same point, once. He started a book in around '84, picking the most outlandish outcome he could think of, the fall of the Berlin Wall. When it was published in '89, he looked like a genius...
I think Alan was working in an SF universe, anyhow, not ours. He'd created a situation where masks could pretty much do whatever they wanted, & was asking, "why not?" Which is somehing not many writers actually do... (It also explains why he told DC they wouldn't be able to use the characters when he was done...

)
For me, it's the flipside of
X-Men when Chris & John were doing it: they were just people trying to get by in a world that hated & feared them. My fave stories were the ones where they'd just hang out & be people, where they could actually have lives, not just be masks. (Which doesn't make JLI less funny.

{"I should never come out in the daytime."

})
As to the inconsistency, yeah, it's there. Why? Who's to say Jon doesn't get an attack of conscience? Or indifference?