As far as I know, yes. The caveat here is that there's a lot of important vintage magical girl shows, like Majokko Meg-chan, that I just don't know much about.
From what I have read it seems that transformation and disguises were present in earlier magical girls shows though they were more or less just part of broader magical abilities, there are exceptions though like Himitsu no Akko-chan. Though I think what makes them different from the Cutie Honey model is that in something like Himitsu no Akko-chan the transformations are used to engage the plot instead of a reaction to the plot, if that makes any sense.
As for this episode I am a little worried after Kanade got flustered when she interviewed the blonde male idol boy. My worry comes from I was hoping that friendship would play a big role in the series, I would hate for that to be sidelined by a focus on romance. Now I am not saying that romance shouldn't be touched upon, I just don't want it to steal attention away from friendship. Honestly though I get the feeling a love triangle is brewing with Kanade liking the boy but the boy liking Hibiki who honestly doesn't care for him that way. My hope is that if they do introduce this love triangle it is dealt with by the end of the first arc, right before the new Precures are introduced.
As for actual Yuri stories and not just fanservice, very little is out there. Though in the past few years there were the adaptions of Aoi Hana and Sasameki Koto, both really good though commercial failures. The failure of those two is probably going to preclude another "serious" Yuri production for a while.
