Yes, that is what it seems like. It just plays so generically to me--or like you say here, that it's just Miller's favorite scenario grafted onto the character without seeing anything there in the character as she exists that needs to be worked with. (And then it's the scenario that gets fleshed out rather than Catwoman.) I see this woman getting abused and humiliated by people she thinks are sick, but nothing in this story would ever make me look at this person and say she was defined as "thief." Which it's hard for me to imagine her not starting off doing at a very early age and having as a profession by this age, even if she wasn't a master at it yet.