You don't have to appear vague about it-there's no 'somehow'. Gnomes DO fit. If they don't, then there's a surely a host of creatures of every alignment that don't fit-and that includes certain classes of hero and heroine too. For instance, Monks are the most pointless and tragically loused-up amalgam of Ninjas, Clerics, Rogues and Draconic Sorcerers, with D&D 5E wanting to have it ALL ways with the most stupidest idea for a hero class that just doesn't exist, merely exhibiting features of all these classes. Screw Monks, screw 'em, if they were even worth it, which they're bloody not. Along with Modrons and Troglodytes as enemies, and Hobbits as a race, Monks just don't exist to me.
I always saw Gnomes as the 4th main good-aligned Hero races to play that weren't of the monster/animal humanoid subtype, with Dwarfs, Elves and Humans, so got a real shock to find they actually wasted 3 pages of The Race Chapter about them, and the Gnomes, while present, were relegated to the ridiculous "more Uncommon Races not existing in every D&D world", which surely adds fuel to their defence. What KIND of D&D interpretative round-up ALWAYS features Hobbits yet dismisses Gnomes, who bridge the gap perfectly between Dwarfs and Elves, while also maintaining an equally Elvish link to the Feywild and those sorts of creatures? Mecheon, you're so right about Hobbits being a mistake, not that it's a mistake, I've ever bothered with, just like Monks, which seem even more worthless than Hobbits. In fact, they are. Everything D&D pretends they do are merely already utilised by Ninjas, Clerics, Rogues, Witches, Samurais and Sorcerers. THAT simple.