^Kiara herself really pushed the ship and defined it at the start, as basically thee Holo EN ship at the start of the branch. After it became one of the primary focuses of her fans she needed to tone it down a bit. Especially because some of the fans did get really intense about it, and that entirely is on those fans. A person can enjoy a ship and be chill about it, being unhinged and taking the ship too far is entirely the fault of the people in the shipping sphere that get that way.
Also gacha games from 10ish years ago were into shipping so I wouldn't say that's new.