I'm probably wrong, but having '04's Sam and Maggie being a retread of '91's personifications, rather than being closer to '66's, seems to me that this was an example of how DC did have a hand in this.
Actually, I believe you are quite right. According to several different interviews that get into the development of the '04 pilot's script, apparently whenever something new and innovative was brought up, DC balked and pushed for the same old thing. However, even though DC was often overruled because he wasn't the last word in the development of the pilot, he was merely one of three exec producers, in other instances DC's way was the way they went. And it's a good guess that whenever DC won, it was when he was fighting for those aspects of the '91 DS that made it into the '04 pilot. Though thankfully, there are also many ways in which the '04 pilot is nothing like any other version of DS, and certainly nothing like hoDS, which those same interviews tend to indicate that, if DC had completely had his way, he would have preferred to have remade again. Thank heavens that wasn't allowed!