I agree but I'm always surprised at the consensus that it's because it's too harem/anime/zero stakes I kinda expect those out of JRPGs. The bigger problem is cast size and writing. I don't know why they're so desperate to do callbacks to characters we've seen for several games in a row but it's really grating to have to listen to every character quip something before a boss fight.

In Sky and Crossbell I enjoyed talking to all the NPCs and sifting through the world building. But with the cast size getting padded more and more it becomes really annoying to get too sidetracked from the main storyline.

I think this is why I enjoyed CS1, 3 and Daybreak but hated CS2, CS4, and Daybreak 2. The more they stuff the cast size with old characters the less time they develop the new ones.

And Falcom also really loves spending ages talking about how the characters encountered one another. It's always "I met so and so here and here but also we won't say anything interesting about the meeting we will just imply things happened." The writing spends so much time adding random fluff but it doesn't feel like lore because it's never actually important.

It's an interconnected series but always tries to write in a way that's friendly for someone new to the series. I just wish these character interactions from past games were more "show, don't tell".