See, Minfilia isn’t my favorite either, but I think she gets way too little respect for her role in the story, which is enormously important. Far too many players think of her just as That Lady Who Calls You A Bunch, completely ignoring and forgetting that Minfilia is the main reason why nearly everything in the main story comes together and why people have any tools to protect themselves against Ascians and Garlean invasions.
As it stands, she’s basically the one person that the Grand Company leaders listen to and respect universally, the only person who knows how to talk to three different nations and convince them to work together. We see that Alphinaud really can’t - the name of Louisoix commands some inherited respect, but when push comes to shove he doesn’t know how to deal with the individual nations in a way that could be considered respectful, and as a result he winds up with support only so long as his goals align with those of the leaders.
Not so with Minfilia. She knows how to ask for help from these people, and more importantly when to ask. All of her efforts are turned to coping with threats too big and far-reaching for the average Eorzean or even the national leaders to think about. Ascians are literally the most ancient malevolent force on the planet that anyone knows of, and Minfilia turns all of her contacts and resources into figuring out how to fight and destroy one of them, something that should be impossible.
And she does it.
There’s a reason why everyone in the story treats Minfilia with such reverence - because she’s a leader, one of the only people actually capable of leading without the weight of a nation or an army. The ending of 2.55′s storyline throws it into stark relief, because she even knows when her safety is a detriment to the safety of others. She’s as good a leader as anyone could hope to have. So if you want to make fun of her fashion sense, be aware that you’re making fun of a woman who has long since earned the right to dress however the hell she wants.
(And yeah, her outfit is a whole other issue by rights, but calling her ridiculous because of it involves missing the point so thoroughly that you may as well be in orbit.)