I know others may feel differently, but I personally think Trails bonding events are mostly a net positive.
Sometimes it’s hard to weave something seamlessly into a story like this with tons of active moving set pieces, so it’s a great way to add extra to characters or show moments that might be hard to fit in well otherwise.
The only issue is that you can’t see them all in one playthrough unless you have either a mod or are on NG+ with max points.
I do think Horizon adding the ability to watch the ones you missed later in the game was great, especially as there was some big character moments locked behind some of these.
I’m hoping Kai 2 will improve upon the bonding event feature even further