Xenogears vs. Evangelion

So I just watched Neon Genesis Evangelion for the first time. I have been hearing it compared to the video game Xenogears for as long as I have known Xenogears was even a video game. Just now I read a post elsewhere recommending to not play Xenogears because ti is "bad Evangelion fanfiction."

These two things are not even remotely the same. The only part of the two stories that is vaguely similar is the Gazel Ministry and SEELE. Only the Gazel Ministry maybe makes up a quarter of Xenogears' story while SEELE is a pivotal force in Eva. What's more, absolutely none of the playable cast of Xenogears is anything like Shinji, Rei or Asuka. And God knows absolutely no one in EVA even closely resembles the actually important antagonists in Xenogears.

At the end of the day, NGE seemed to be all about the characters. There was kinda sorta a plot in the background but it was just there to connect all the tragedies so we could look into Shinji's and co's minds and think about their emotions. NGE had absolutely NOTHING at all on par with the sprawling, multifaceted narrative of Xenogears.

In fact, having sen Eva, I'm convinced the only reason the two are compared is because of the religious naming and references. Only...as one of the developers of Eva said, it was just name-dropping. It had no deeper meaning or significance. Meanwhile, the entire plot of Xenogears is an allegory for the Ghostic creation myth and uses names intelligently. For instance, all the Gazel Ministry members are named after the children of Cain.

So those are my two cents. I didn't know where exactly to put this as it concerns both a game and an anime. Has anyone else heard these two compared? Do you have any insights on why this is so common?

No. The only things they have in common at a glance are robots and you know how many Japanese things have giant robots?

I actually enjoyed Xenogears, so there's that.