After reading the posts here - and most were really helpful - I took a long look at this paragraph:
That said, the situation is often grey and not clear-cut. There are those few who are part mortal and part monster: vampires who struggle to fight their hungers and do the right thing; werewolves who chose lycanthropy to get the strength to defend their community; wizards who accept help from dark sources, but hope to restrain the urges that threaten to engulf them. Choice is the overwhelming theme of these individuals’ lives. Will they retain their humanity or will they become monsters? And is there any way that those who are now monsters can perhaps regain some degree of humanity, some capacity for choice? (YS11)
There is also this:
At some point, a changeling must Choose whether to become totally fae or totally mortal. If they go fae, they get all the powers of their type, but lose a lot of their free will. If they go mortal, they lose a lot of their inborn powers, but retain free will and mortal agency. (OW41)
Note that is says "a lot of their free will" rather than all free will, and we seem to have an option for something that is almost a true fae but still appears playable. This helps me to flesh out a concept even further - a Changeling that made the final choice and went with his faerie nature, but finds that he still possesses some measure of free will (Refresh > 0). This doesn't free the character from the limitations of the fae as noted in Our World, but I'd imagine such a character following his fae nature - but attempting to guide his actions within the greater limits of it - should be as playable as a WCV.