You'll have to forgive me for not being able to appreciate the gritty war drama with scenes like this.
It's not and never was gritty war drama though it sometimes meanders into that direction.
It is really hard to explain the theme because VC1 theme is really special and part of the reason why game is revered.
I'm yet to play single game that replicated this theme.
It's like trying to explain to you there is something different behind planescape torment than jrpg gameplay with bombastic spells, 23 talk tree options, how many companions it has, how long the game is.
It's in the way Deionarra talk to the nameless one. It's in the way Morte hides truth from you, It's in the way other versions of the nameless one impact world you experience.
VC1 isn't loved because it has anime tropes and it does have some anime tropes. It is the unique nature of it that is loved here coupled with really fun gameplay system.
VC2/3 on other hand didn't have that unique nature and focused on gameplay and fans didn't like it precisely because it lost the charm VC1 had and the anime tropes you talk about destroyed its charm. To the point where even creators after failing with VC2 and VC3 went back and recreated whole process to make VC4 in order to replicate that unique nature it had.
And we can't talk about the series without Welkin. He is the Yang from TLOGH in a very similar way. He is odd duck that would rather be on the filed looking to categorize bugs and plants than as a commander of squad. It sounds whimsical and it is and yet this very special quirk of his character that in 99% of cases would lead to some stupid trope is just great exploration of differently focused mind that has entirely different motivations in life compared to "normal" people and how this affect his tank unit. If it wasn't more clear Welkin - Wen-li.
And it is rare case of perfect games. Like HOMM3. The creators of it executed everything excellently to the point where you can't say that game has bad side. Yes there is scout exploit but such exploits HOMM3 also had and there is not a more perfect game as HOMM3.