Mind of tempest
(he/him)advocate for 5e psionics
and the age where Jimmy Olsen could headline a comic is long past.I wonder if gnomes and halflings are necessary and useful to give more spice, something like Jimmy Olsen as Clark Kent's friend. Jimmy Olsen wasn't created to be cool, popular or loved but to help to show Clark Kent/Superman human side.
Gnomes and halflings help to show a kinder side of D&D world, they are the innocent people who have to be saved by the heroic PCs. In certay way, the gnome and halfling communities could be closest one in D&D to a true utopy. They are like characters from a preschool children cartoon or a family-friendly sitcom where villagers only worry about simple things for example to find the right boyfriend for the daughter.. Their villages are like that "happy and safe place" where Bilbo and Frodo want to return, rest and recover from war marks after their adventures.
they are small and largely irrelevant to the setting just put them in a corner and forget about them as they are supposed to not matter.