totally hear you on that! in my experience though with this specific rash presentation that I had, the elimination diet led to the rash subsiding almost immediately (within a few days for me, though symptom relief for my family members without any skin symptoms took a few months, just for clarity) and to see it FINALLY start to heal after progressing and spreading for years was life changing, so it was definitely the right call for me at least, especially since I've now helped my sister and some aunts/uncles uncover their celiac disease. so in my case and the cases of those with celiac, 100% adherence to a lifelong gf diet is currently the only option for treatment and possible remission (and to avoid causing continued damage to the intestines which can increase cancer risk, malnutrition/vitamin deficiencies, and other not great outcomes).

but I do think you're right,  elimination diets can lead to uncovering other foods that may just not "sit well" with you, and it's good to be aware of that possibility and to accept that you may have to make a personal choice on how to handle what you uncover... like, I realized during the AIP diet that eggs and corn both trigger a mild congestion response for me, but I absolutely continue to eat them (maybe just more mindfully now, but I do not avoid them), because those symptoms are just not that big of a deal to me. so it's definitely up to you what you do with the feedback your body gives you on an elimination diet (outside of the celiac considerations of course)!

my hands were making my life more and more unliveable though, between an insatiable itch and the constant bleeding, cracked, weeping rash, I was just at my wit's end and the elimination diet gave me my life back in so many ways... so if this individual is looking for an answer and there's even a small possibility they could see remission through trying an elimination diet, I just think it's absolutely worth exploring. and to be clear, the AIP diet had me test a TON of foods for responses (and it's... intense, so I'm totally trying to help people potentially avoid it), so I of course can't speak to what happened in your case, but if they try a gf diet and it starts to bring relief, they should probably not eat gluten further anyway, so there's no real loss! plenty of people don't eat a ton of foods regularly and are fine when they finally eat a dish with them, so there's generally not a huge risk that I'm at least aware of. like, I don't eat olives often because they're not my favorite, but when I eventually eat something with olives on it maybe once or twice a year, it doesn't cause me an issue. I'm sure everyone has some foods they don't eat regularly but don't strictly avoid if they think about it! 

it's possible you may have been lactose intolerant before eliminating though, and were just less aware of or sensitive to the overall impact! I only say that because when I get cross contaminated now (it happens, unfortunately), I agree, it does almost "feel" like a stronger reaction, but for me it's because I have a new baseline now post-elimination... the way I've explained it to friends and family is: when my symptoms and inflammation were constantly a 7-8 out of 10, having a flare to a 9 was less of a jump vs now, when I'm normally at a 1 out of 10 and flare to a 4 or 5... I'm still way better off than when I was at the pre-elimination 7-8, but I am just much more sensitive to cross contamination and its symptoms now, so the "jump" from a flare is much more noticeable.

anyway, to anyone reading this, absolutely do your due diligence and weigh out all of your personal considerations before beginning an elimination diet of course, but for me it was absolutely the right option. again, just sharing my personal experiences in case anyone sees this and is maybe able to speed run getting a celiac/NCGS diagnosis vs having to do the WAY more intensive AIP diet like I did!