It's not so much the cute elements in themselves so much as the timing of their appearance. I doubt FF7 would be as well received if, after a certain character's murder, you randomly saw Cloud running around and giggling with a group of talking bunnies. Or if in FF9 when an entire city was destroyed, immediately afterwards the party just shrugged and never mentioned it again.

Up until Endwalker I quite liked that FFXIV hadn't gone down the same path of WoW where things just happened with minimal build up or explanation and I don't think it was a good way to have the finale of a decade long story just rapidly move from one event to the next with minimal time to breathe. Especially with the fanservice stacked towards characters that already get the lion's share of attention...and aren't going anywhere anytime soon.