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In real life, do people generally prefer to be perceived as physically attractive, or as physically unattractive? The obvious answer, for both men and women, is "physically attractive".
So I don't see any harm or sexism in having an "Action Girl" character that's generally portrayed as being physically attractive, and hence as having "sex appeal".
That being said, nobody (male or female) wants to be seen as "just a pretty face".
But in a way the "Action Girl" characterization combats this at an intrinsic level. At a bare minimum, a reasonably well-written Action Girl is good at, well, action! She's good at kicking ass, to put it bluntly. That clearly distinguishes her from the classic damsel in distress, and shows that she is more than just a pretty face.
Mind you, it is possible to screw this up, and take a portrayal that should be inherently empowering to women and turn it into a sexist caricature.
Do you know why I object to fanservice in action scenes? The main reason is indeed that I find that these two "tastes" (erotic arousal, and thrilling combat) clash nastily for me when they're mixed together. But a very important secondary reason is that I do think that you hurt the image of an "Action Girl", and risk having her come across as a sexist caricature, if her action scenes are fanservice-loaded.
Remember that what makes an "Action Girl" stand out from "the Damsel in Distress" is that the Action Girl is not "just a pretty face". But if you take the Action Girl, and emphasize her sex appeal even when she's doing things that shows that she's not just a pretty face, then that just inherently undermines any perception of her being more than just a pretty face.
Why? Because it shows that even as she is being more than just physically attractive, what is the camera choosing to focus on? If it's choosing to focus on her sex appeal even when she's in action, then the production is basically saying that her sex appeal trumps everything else about her, which does come dangerously close to saying "Yeah, she's just a pretty face".
So in my view a character may become a sexist caricature if their beauty, handsomeness, or sex appeal is overemphasized at the expense of other positive character traits. But sex appeal alone is not a negative character trait - It only becomes one if it starts to override everything else.
Thankfully, that's not the case for just about all of the girls on Kaioshin's list that I've personally watched, so neither one of Akemi Homura, Asuna Yuuki, Yui Takamura, or Kuroyukihime are sexist, imo. In fact, I think that Homura and KYH are two of the least sexist female characters in all of anime, if not in all of fiction. They're very strong and well-developed characters, and KYH is extremely well-rounded.
I haven't seen enough of Zetsuen no Tempest to take a strong position either way on Hakaze Kusaribe, though.
So, tl;dr, most action girls in anime are not sexist. And the basic concept itself is certainly not sexist either. The key, imo, is to not allow sex appeal to override everything else. Sex appeal in and of itself is fine, but it shouldn't define the character. If it does start to define the character, then yeah, we're probably now into sexist caricature territory.
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