I just looked the scene up on youtube, you ARE taking it way out of context. First off they never called it a "Date", players might but the game didn't. It's clearly just cloud and Barret hanging out, I mean while they're on that ride at the end Barret's asking him which one of the women he likes for crying out loud. It's not a date.

And I never said it was perfect but it wasn't unbearable. And yes it was a dark a gritty game for the most part. Golden Saucer getting shot up, the people on the ship getting slaughtered. Villages burnt. Reactors getting bombed. Sector 7 getting wiped out.

I could add a hundred things to that list.