I doubt anyone's saying, "This is horrible, we don't want war, Cathay is evil." It's a perfect excuse for a war, which the south has been lacking for quite some time. Arcaea was one of the realms most recently at war and already some of my nobles are getting itchy. I don't know how you southerners go for six months or a year with no war at all.
But we are still entitled to have an opinion on the severity of the demands made of Kindara.