I get where you’re coming from, and I do agree with you in regards of some of those folks. Muffin, Marcusmaximus, Coalheart and Waggytail all did depict fluffies as “exciting pathos” hence the term “pathetic” but in the more positive meaning of inciting “sympathy and empathy” out of the reader. And I do agree that there is some reward to reading stories about working against assumptions and the supposed inherent trait of being “pathetic”.
Perhaps a much better example then would be @Pinkyfluffy. I do really mean it when I say that I don’t see his fluffies as being “pathetic”. Pinkyfluffy has often depicted fluffy versions of various well-known properties, and while on can see it as cute and even weirdbox, that doesn’t mean its pathetic. When I look at his work on depicting fluffies in his native Italy, or his rather controversial picture of a fluffy parent saving a foal from a “foal to sketti” machine, I don’t see a fluffy being pathetic. It could be argue that Pinkyfluffy did the latter pic as a response to the general depiction of fluffies being pathetic in most canons, but due to how unique Pinkyfluffy’s own fluffies and depictions are, I wouldn’t consider his particular canon as revolving around that approach. And there are one or two others who have their own unique take on non-pathetic fluffies, but many have been chased out in the past because they dislike the approach, or are too “beholden” to expectation. Again, its the reason why I don’t believe in keeping a trait of “patheticness” as necessity.