Partly true.
1. It will stop on a downward slope when westbound, which is a disadvantage, but it will actually be on an upward slope when eastbound, which is efficient, as gravity helps brake.
2. We don't know what the signal priority system will be.
3. If no one actually lives at Leslie, why would the dwell time be half a minute?
4. As noted, it accelerates down the hill when westbound.
5. Why do you keep saying this? They have said they are going back to the original EA plan, in which there is a portal about 800 feet before Don Mills and an underground station. No one has talked about an at-grade station here in years.
The only thing affecting the speed of the route between Laird and Ferrand is the single controlled intersection at Leslie. Even without any signal priority this light would be green about half the time, and so the average wait time would be half of the length of the signal cycle. How long is that, about a minute? Your 5 minutes doesn't stand up.
This plan doesn't change every five minutes. In the fall they proposed a change, and after public consultation, the change was cancelled and they went back to the approved plan.
Unfortunately, it's true that the planners defended their proposed change as the best solution and had to back down on it. This reflects our political & public service culture. No one who works for government is ever allowed to suggest that what they are "explaining" is a compromise. Everything is optimal. Alternatives to the agreed plan are shown to be unworkable, but when they become the new plan they are shown to be improvements. No one acknowledges the contradiction; you could say so in a memo, but that would never make it to the final edit. I don't know how it got this way, but it's not the fault of the planners of the Eglinton line. If you want to see this in action, go back and read the last 5 years of planning documents on the Ottawa Confederation Line. Nearly every feature of the final plan, save the basic route, was suggested at some point and ruled out, until it became part of the plan for cost-cutting reasons, at which point it became an improvement.