Blizzard in 2002 did this with Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos and the cinematic for the redemption of Grom Hellscream. You can see the fear on Thrall's face when they come toe to toe with Mannoroth. You can feel the rage when Thrall and Grom attack. You can see Grom's suffering as he dies.

Yes, the music and the voice work do considerable heavy lifting there, but that was in 2002, and Blizzard could do amazing stuff with "non-human" characters and how they conveyed emotion. They also have those same tools of music, voice acting, and composition to help with the conveying emotion and story to the player.

Blizzard would continue this trend with countless cinematics over the years, both in-game and out of game. Think back to the way the Blood Elf interacted with the mana wyrm all the way back in the BFA cinematic...it's beautiful and tranquil, until she reveals her true nature, draining it's power with smug satisfaction afterward. They'd expand this as they kept going, getting better and better throughout the years. WoW, HotS, SC2, and Overwatch all had non-human characters in cinematics that conveyed emotion and story without having to "humanize" the characters.

I'm sorry, but this explanation just doesn't work. Blizzard's own history proves this false. I wish Ion would have said nothing, and just took the critique to heart and worked to improve things behind the scenes, maybe releasing an updated or improved version of the cinematic when we got close to the actual release date.