I find it a little puzzling that two characters of the same gender can't have a friendship without someone pointing that they must be gay.
It's something that cuts both ways.
Yes, absolutely, people will ship two people of the same gender even when there's basically nothing to suggest it. Largely because queer people are so starved for representation in the medium, let alone representation of actual relationships. Yes, this can have an unfortunate effect of downplaying platonic friendships.
But it's also commonly the case that two same gender characters will have significant amounts of romantic subtext (usually that straight people don't even pick up on at all), and straight people will ridicule those who point it out, and basically try to gatekeep and say they're not queer unless they're literally shown fucking (e.g. Fire Emblem's Ike and Soren).
With regard to Xenoblade 2, I think Brigid most certainly shows romantic affection toward Morag, and very arguably Malos toward Jin, though I wouldn't say that either case is necessarily reciprocated.
Know what'd be nice? Developers just giving us more than subtext.