Firstly, a clarification: I don't differentiate levels of "greatness" between something like E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial and Schindler's List, because I think both are massively substantial. (E.T. is all about the pain of divorce, the empowerment of children, the innocence and frustration of childhood, the fact that love and pain are inseperable, and so much more.) I think to do so is snobby in the extreme. I'm not suggesting you were doing this, I'm just making that clarification in case it was needed.

Secondly, I don't see any issue with the girl in the red coat being heavy handed. It is an artistic flourish. A splash of colour that can simply be a metaphor for the inexplicable, complex machinations that trigger change in a human being. Would the film work just as well without it? Perhaps. Personally, I like it how it is. But each to their own. It is entirely possible for two different people to see two different things in a great work of art. And I believe Schinder's List is, emphatically, a great work of art. Spielberg may be a populist, but what's wrong with that? Good for him. He's being himself, and I wouldn't want him to be anything else.