Many academic critics would disagree with you. For example, Karol Kelley has argued that Pretty Woman is a deliberate re-telling of the Cinderella story and that Vivian is a weak and helpless Cinderella. Actually, I was thinking more of Pygmalion, the fish out of water, as the frame. But it is true that I look for the Cinderella aspect when I am making a film. Most good stories are Cinderella.
Audiences like to watch characters whose lives change for the better.
In other words, most academic critics would rather see the woman change her own life and not have it changed for her by a man or a fairy godmother. Yes, and I think that's what we are seeing with women like Maggie and Erin. They are masters of their own destiny. They make their own decisions. Maggie is literally Vivian ten years later.