Intent matters, in my opinion. Yuri has lesbians because the writers and customers like girl-on-girl. There isn't any serious message, the readers could be huuuuge homophobes and still enjoy it because it just has cute girls doing cute things. Western AAA games have a tendency to treat it like a Very Special Episode, "Here is our lesbians and they're valid" kind of thing.

There are plenty of cartoons and videogames that cover these topics more subtly (and or sexily) that get a pass. I don't think I've ever heard anyone complain about Ciri being into woman, despite all the praise that the Witcher 3 game has.

TLDR: Some writers handle things better than others. The way they handle them can make it forced or not, it isn't really an all or nothing deal.

I see no cognitive dissonance, must be your imagination