Agreed on Keffer actually having a purpose in this episode. BTW, isn't this the first time we see Jeff Corwin, who did become sort of the little guy who doesn't ever have the big picture on the station?

I find myself far more sympathetic with the human position here and in “Word” than I think I’m meant to be – grand gestures are all very well, but Delenn seems to be far too focused on the gesture itself, and not on its purpose, and it seems ends up completely failing to build any real connection between Earth and Minbar.

I'm not completely sure about Word, but here, given the soldiers accosting Delenn are presented as thugs, yes, we're probably not supposed to sympathize with their position at all. With Delenn, I think the problem is that she wants to have her cake and eat it - she wants to atone, but she does not want to confess first. And as you said, not only does this make human/Minbari reconciliaton about herself but means the humans and most of the Minbari (i.e. everyone who wasn't present in the Council when she cried for war) can't understand what her point is anyway because she never ever explains.