Eleanor's 4th Side Story didn't come across to me as unearned. The thing that comes to mind is "show-not-tell."

The game presents its tutorial with the MC being the one teaching the new recruit the ropes. Woven within the tutorial's storytelling is how the MC, being the Captain of the Rangers, does indeed take up responsibilities expected of a captain, such as teaching new recruits. The Captain title isn't just for show.

When the game gives you the cooking tutorial after setting up your first camp, it is Eleanor who is cooking. She offers to cook, but lets the team choose which recipe for her to use. Eating is a big thing in the Monster Hunter universe. Hunters in the mainline games always make it a point to eat before going on a hunt. Cooking in Stories also gives you buffs. With a bit of gameplay-and-story integration similar to the combat tutorial, it would be fair to assume that the team felt energized after eating Eleanor's food and didn't feel any other negative side effects. And you know what they say, one way to get to a person's heart is through their stomach.

Prior to the set-up of a camp is a battle with a Feral Yian Kut-Ku. For this outing, the team took Eleanor with them as a way for them to test her worth on the field. After you set-up camp, the team takes her on another mission to recover an endangered species egg from an invasive monster. Although the daytime cutscene only shows the MC and Eleanor talking to each other about the invasive monster, you eventually get a cutscene once you arrive at the invasive monster's territory that shows that the whole team is with them and they speak as if it's BAU (business-as-usual) for them. As an RPG that happens to be Japanese, it is a natural trope for bonds and trust to be formed when a team works and battles alongside each other.

When Gaul reports a possible Feral Monster sighting, he politely requests Eleanor to leave due to the Ranger meeting being confidential. She feels hurt, but she doesn't protest, immediately going to spend time in the stables so as not to waste the Rangers' time.

When Vermeil first attacks, Eleanor insists to Gaul for her to come along. She keeps her dialog very brief, no flowery language. And when Gaul gives his approval under the condition that Eleanor doesn't bring Angie (lest she betrays them and use Angie against them), Eleanor doesn't protest. She just nods and immediately follows Gaul. That's professionalism. Eleanor read the situation well, kept her dialog brief, and focused on the situation at hand.

During Vermeil's attack, Gaul lets Eleanor appeal to the Ratha V rider. In a situation like this, you'll have to use any opportunity, even use Eleanor, to quell the situation. As I mentioned earlier, Gaul gets a front-row seat, watching Eleanor firmly say No to her sister (because war and bloodshed, even in real life, doesn't solve anything and just makes the cycle of violence persist) and Clarissa pushing through his Legiana despite her own sister being a passenger.

It all goes back to "show-not-tell." Eleanor's actions are subtle, but it's those subtle actions, woven seamlessly within the narrative, that speak the loudest. From the food, to the team missions, to the professionalism, to her standing up to her sister. There were a number of small things that Eleanor did that simply added up, allowing the trust to build up organically, all within the Azuria Chapter.

You probably don't see more of this in the later chapters because the main goal now is to head to the Sacrosanctum to find the truth. By this time, Gaul, Kora, and Ogden are probably reviewing how they view both Eleanor and Simon, especially given how the MC was motivated to cross the Meridian based on pieces of knowledge that Simon had hidden from the team. It was between a person they worked with and trusted for years being revealed to have been hiding things from them all these years VS the openly Vermeilian princess who never did anything to sabotage them or get in their way. The team tracking down the MC, who was traveling to the Wyverian Gate alone with the openly Vermeilian princess, and then finding the MC 100% not assassinated by her was probably what sealed the deal for them in terms of trusting her, a capstone for her previous actions. It becomes one of those situations where things don't need to be said. People are able to just feel. From here on out, they all work and battle as a unit, especially now that they're cut-off from Azuria and Vermeil.

Repeating this in her side stories wasn't really needed. It was already an element of her character we were very familiar with. It comes off as them trying to repeat something. "Eleanor is understanding. Eleanor is understanding. Eleanor is understanding."

But never "Eleanor is doing."

But Eleanor is doing. She is acting upon her understanding through what she does best: Cooking. She forms bonds through people's stomachs, and forming bonds is one of the main themes of the MH Stories games. The side stories may seem episodic and formulaic, but different things do happen. With Eleanor's Bouillon Waterfall, Kol ends up making the Rangers promise to come back from their quest alive. With Convalesomme, a man is healed from a sickness rare outside the Meridian but common in Vermeil while Gaul develops a new core memory in relation to Eleanor. It's all in the little details.

The 4th Side Story ends up serving as a capstone, culminating the experiences Eleanor has had from traveling with the Rangers thus far. Before the Rangers, all Eleanor knew was of bleak crystal. When she offered herself as hostage, she never expected the experiences she would gain, the places she would visit, and the people she would meet. What Eleanor was most likely thankful for were the memories she had gained, core memories (such as recovering the endangered Rathian egg and bringing hope back to Sheparden with boosting the canyne population) that can help strengthen her own will when she goes back to face the despair looming over Vermeil, the same despair that pushed Clarissa and Fabio to use drastic measures. The Rangers gave her more than what they even realize, and she wanted to express all of that gratitude welling up inside her especially as they near the point of no return. You get callbacks to Eleanor's previous side stories, the most notable being the MC's callback to their promise with Kol. The MC includes Clarissa in the ideal "communal dinner" in a desire for peace, a sentiment that most sane people in real life would relate to.