The human hangups are what allow us to practice body language, fashion, etc and what gives us the desire to do so. If we didn't have such hang ups then, from experience, understanding such things is much harder, practicing such things is harder, and desiring such things requires convincing. It is easier to win if one is endowed with the required intuitions and heuristics to make practicing such things both desirable and natural.

Yeah, you probably do want to let the elephant be in charge of fighting or mating with other elephants, once the rider has decided it's a good idea to do so.