By that metric, he didn't have a choice in making them cannon-fodder either (since they were in the Verheiden comic as well), so dinging him for that portrayal is a little disingenuous.
In a way you could say the portrayal of the Aliens (be it Verheiden or Perry's "fault") is similar to the pitfall that 'AvP:R' had, where the Aliens were alternately super-competent on a broad scale (overrunning Earth, overrunning a small town) but shown to be ineffectual against the protagonists on a small scale. In essence, the protagonists had "plot armor".
'Aliens' the film is guilty of this, too, it just does a better job of hiding it.