I would say the overreacting and Ellie's reaction to what is going on is a reflection of her culture. It's not just for viewers she doesn't know; it's for people who may be watching in her ward.
I've been super fascinated with Utah Mormon culture mainly because I disagree with so many things. LGBTQIA policies, the fact that women are expected to be stay at home moms & the highest thing they can do is be president of their local relief society charity, that being black is considered a curse from god. It's like Scientology too where they don't associate with ex-mormons, and they have such strange "secretive" rituals in the temple. Plus those god awful temple garmets we can occasionally see the Griffith sibs wear under their clothes.
The goal is to be the happiest, Whitest family with no problems in the least. You're raised from birth to be a perfect mormon barbie doll, and if you can't keep it up then
you're out of your temple wedding. In the mormon community, women are expected to have at least 5 kids. They actually look down at you if you have anything less; I was reading on one ex mormon forum where they were giving one mom hell until she broke down in a meeting about her struggles with getting pregnant again. One mother had three kids, and someone else was like "
well of COURSE you have a job, you only have three children!!"
So, in a culture where the value of a woman is equated to their ability of how well they 1) birth some babies, 2) clean up after everyone, and 3) have a
pinterest-perfect house, of course she's devastated. I think they're also trying to drum it up with shots like Jared sitting in the bathroom so that way their ward knows they're trying, it's not their fault, and it's not intentional. I didn't see the phone call so I don't know if she's intentionally insensitive and bitchy, but for the most part it seems like she's really wrapped up in her own life & trying to project that image of perfection to everyone that she decided to do that.
ALSO I'm not trying to knock SAHM & SAHD's or anything! It's a super hard job & is important. I just find it really strange that women expect & are expected to stay at home while the father works, especially in this day in age where it's so expensive.