I'm trying to better understand the subject and part of me is unclear on if any depiction of another culture "counts", even if it's a fictionalized depiction / amalgamation of those cultures.
Also, if you could count stuff like those as examples, I'm unclear on if cultural appropriation is always bad, or more dependent on how respectful / high quality the appropriation is.
Jade Empire makes no claim to represent China, but rather to reflect elements of Chinese myth. The Jade Empire (the empire, not the game) was explicitly designed to not be China, in order to give the writers more freedom. Even so, it wouldn't be particularly out of place as the setting of a domestic wuxia or xianxia work (save the part where JE includes no elements of cultivation, and thus would not fit into works of xianxia in that regard). It is no more cultural appropriation than God of War is.