The arguments bmat and v_inv to gvec_to_xy are accepted but not used in the new_capi version of the transforms module. The xf_numpy also has those arguments but handles them.
The bmat matrix converts HKLs to the components of the normal vector in the crystallographic reference frame. If this is not None then the input gvec_c are expected to be HKLs. The v_inv argument accounts for the grain stretch in fitting.
However, I don't see any place where these arguments are actually used in calls to gvec_to_xy.