I'm not sure whether it is something the writers gave much thought to, bit I think there is some solid reasoning for having the Illusive Man use one of Shepard's former companions instead of his own people to recover the corpse. He couldn't risk Miranda or Wilson; Assuming the corpse was successfully recovered, they would be vital to the Lazarus Project. It would be pointless to recover the corpse and yet lose either one of the project's lead scientists in the process. Jacob, Kai Leng, or some nameless Cerberus goon would have perhaps been more expendable than either Miranda or Wilson, but they had not known Shepard previously and as such had no emotional connection to him. Using someone who does have an emotional connection to Shepard, whether that connection was as a comrade-in-arms, close friend, or lover...makes some sense. A person with an emotional connection to Shepard would be more willing to take risks to recover the corpse than someone who doesn't.
The purpose of Liara's cameo in Paragon Lost was to reveal the events of the previous games to Vega and Treeya, and in doing so, to reveal the backstory setting up the cartoon to viewers who hadn't played the previously games. That role may not have been necessary for you, but that is because you've played the games. If you hadn't, you would need a character to provide you with that info dump. If not Liara you would still need a character from the previous games, who played a direct role in the events being described, to provide that info dump. You would also need a character that was guaranteed to be be alive in all playthroughs. That leaves Liara, EDI, and Joker for that role. Of the three Liara by far makes the most sense, particularly when you consider that Treeya is both Asari and a xenoanthropologist and was going to have a past connection to the person providing the info dump.
As for Liara being an information broker, I partially agree. I like the direction they took the character in after Mass Effect 1, my only complaint is that it wasn't developed properly. You can develop characters into dramatically different dirrections in fiction, so long as that progression is sold well. The series Breaking Bad is a great example of this, with a mild-mannered High School chemistry teacher transitioning into a ruthless mass-murdering drug lord by series end. People were able to accept that dramatic shift because it was slowly developed over the course of five years and five seasons. Now obviously something like that is a bit harder to pull off in a game series, where the characters have far less dialogue and screen time than a character in a television series. But if the how and why of Liara being an information broker couldn't be explained well in game, I'd argue that perhaps that instead should have been the focus of the Homeworld comic. Or perhaps it should have been the focus of one of the novels. I don't think there was anything wrong however with making Liara an information broker. The idea was solid, it just wasn't developed properly.
As for the Crucible, I think Bioware got it right in having Liara be the one to discover the plans. Given that the plans for it are Prothean, it makes sense to have them be discovered by the archaeologist specializing in the Protheans. I think Liara makes more sense than Shepard for that role.
I'm honestly not seeing the need for someone who has an emotional connection to Shepard needing to find his body. Hell, Liara was acting on her own volition for nearly half the comic series to get his body back for reasons. Miranda would be suited since she's the operative who gets results. I don't see why she wouldn't do it. After all, she dedicated two years of her life to bringing him back from the dead, and without forming an emotional connection (or holding one with Shepard previously to his demise). She has the drive to succeed in her goal, and the will to accomplish the optimal result. Miranda has value to Cerberus, yes, but she's the type that would succeed regardless. I'd guess that she is TIM's go-to agent. In fact, she is his go-to person in the comics. That said, there's no need for her to have done it alone. Miranda's high enough on the Cerberus line that she can basically get whatever she needs to accomplish her mission from TIM.
For this paragraph (your second): There's three more options. Hackett, Anderson, and Udina. Any of them could have served as exposition for the Collector Plot. Especially Anderson, considering it takes place at or shortly after ME2, when the alliance would have been told by Shepard, TIM, Cerberus, etc. that the Collectors had been defeated. Any of those three would have sufficed, and seeing as its an alliance military operation, it would have made more sense to involve any of them over Liara. I'm sorry, but I still think this is a case of her being made to fit into the most amount of content possible. Paragon Lost isn't a good movie in my opinion (I don't like the very liberal interpretations of the lore, the VA (then again, it is an anime flick; imo, anime is usually pretty poor quality), the fact that its anime, the plain bad storytelling, and of course, Liara being shoe-horned in. The Asari scientist was a token imo. She really didn't need to be there. At all.
I can agree to that, even if I still think Liara wasn't the best choice to make as an Information Broker. That said, not doing something for her would have really made her plot relevance disappear, since she'd essentially lose any real utility to the story as a civilian archaeologist. I think she could have played an Elena Fischer role more than anything. She'd come off as the perpetual damsel in distress, but I don't think a lot of people would be particularly worried at that aspect of her. For me though.
I'm fine with her being the one to discover the Crucible plans. That said, after Mars, imo, her importance to the plot to the point where she has to run her entire organization from the Normandy seems very contrived. Post-Mars, we should have had the option to send her off to Hackett. EDI and Sam can easily fill whatever role she had, and if she has to get in contact, she can just call you up on the Normandy or send you a message. And she definitely should have been more squishy in the game (as in, she should have had some kind of death meter, if only so that it really fit with the 'anyone can die mechanic').
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