Sure, End Hostilities and Crux of Fate have had major impacts on the format, but nothing close to how detrimental Wrath of God, Damnation, and Supreme Verdict had on their formats from days of old
The Cloud, Midgar Mercenary card also doesnt really fit the narrative here, but it does have deliberate synergy with the Buster Sword, allowing you to search your deck for an equipment card, and his abilities also double-trigger (kind of like the Double Cut materia!)
And, sure, maybe there werent operating at the same individual volume as the capital F flippers, but there were more of them, because by this time more people realized it was possible to make a quick, risk-free profit on the cards
And we like to go wide with tokens or big with ramp here