This stuff with Fire Emblem reminds of when Sega removed the Hostess club stuff from Yakuza 3. Which was also seen as a super huge deal and people are still upset about that game.
However in that case of Yakuza 3 removing that also removed what I recall to be like 30 fucking percent of the game’ (Yakuza is a game with a LOT of side stuff to do). So that’s a bigger deal, but still.