It's more the 'champion' (her job title, not your fault) and 'superpowers' language than it is recognising and valuing someone's empathy.

It comes across as inauthentic to me, though I believe that's not the case. May also be a cultural difference (well, there certainly is, but broadly applicable to our respective nations I mean) since to me it's quite like how you can't offer a simple 'thanks' (resp. cheers!) to a shopkeeper or whoever in the US without being told 'you're so welcome', and probably to 'have a great day now'.

Yeah, I can't stand that about the US. The best supermarket experience of my life was in Croatia, in Zagreb. I asked a woman working there whether they had ice, and she just said "No." (punctuation hers), spun around, and marched off to the next thing. No "Let me see if I can find them in the warehouse, or else freeze them myself while you awkwardly wait", no "Can I help you find something else? What about some water and a freezer?", just "Nope, no ice, question answered, I'm out". I could have bought a house there, right there and then.