Aaron Chaim,
If you look at his approach, it is a very sensible one. Halakha can either be used in a way that emphasizes gevura, or in a way that reflects hesed, and the Sephardic tradition to which he was an heir most certainly was one of hesed.
Hesed, kocha d’hetera adif, and the emphasis of codified law over pilpul define the Sephardic approach in its purest glory, and there was no greater exponent of these principles in modern times than Hakham Ovadia.