Romance stories follow an ironclad rule: "Love conquers all". There has to be an obstacle of some sort.
The truly toxic romance stories are those in which the obstacle is ultimately rooted in the personality of the partner, and the message becomes "if I love them enough, I can change them". In reality, relationships with large age gaps create a largely justified fear that the older partner is taking advantage of the younger partner, but while that may be generally true, it is not always true. A (age gap) implies B (power imbalance) which often leads to C (bad relationship), but that doesn't mean A leads to C.
In romance stories it's almost never true, because the age gap itself provides the obstacle that love can overcome. Case in point, this story. These people are clearly in love with each other, think the world of each other, and are deeply concerned with each other's wellbeing. It's a recipe for a perfect relationship. But it's a romance story, so there has to be an obstacle - the fact that the older woman is fundamentally a good person, and because she is a good person, is worried that she might be inadvertently taking advantage of the younger woman after all. It's cute because we, as romance readers, know she's worried over nothing. Love conquers all. All is right with the world today.
It's escapism, of course, because that's the point.