IMO this comes from the Latins always having had a sort of 'were not worthy but let's try to make up for it with this that and the other thing' mentality. Certainly we eastern Christians concur on the We're definitly not worthy end of things, but find a lot of the trying to make up for that to be a bit extraneous and futile.
Penance for instance in the east is a pretty rare thing for a priest to ask of a confessor (only in extreme instances).
To an extent the East said in a bunch of circumstances (celibacy being another) that the latins were great folks for going all out, but that nothing in doctrine required explicitly anything like what they were doing.
Interesting new information to me about you Orthodox folks.
If you guys just lost the hats and dresses, you'd be hard to recognize from many non-catholics!
By the way... we took a vote: Your hats are MUCH cooler, but they've got the better flag.
:)