In my opinion, if the romantic scenes are true to the characters, then its fine for them to have no direct bearing on the greater plot. In some sense, stories are rarely about [X saving Y]; usually it's something more like [this is what happened to X when he went to save Y]. In that context, its perfectly reasonable to include scenes that don't drive the reader's expectation of the plot forward.

Another useful thing that having scenes like this does is slows back down the pace. If our half elf hero is on a rescue mission, there's probably a decent amount of action/high pressure scenes. But the reader can't necessarily get through a book that is 100% high pace and action. A romantic/emotional scene with no real 'goal' is a pressure release valve for the character and the reader. And when you approach the book's climax, that may flip on it's head and the relationship between MC and love interest is an additional pressure point when the plot is very serious.