...and in a way I find, that The AoF is written entirely in its own unique timeless style.
I don't really share this finding of yours, sorry to say. For me, some fugues in WTC sound as
self-consciously retro as many of the contrapuncti. Applying "rhetorical" gestures in these pieces
can seem pretty "forced," depending on one's own feel about the music (as a listener in the 20th/21st
century).