>   |  CITE is not for quotes or excerpts, but rather for titles of
>   |  cited works, ala:

I certainly meant titles.  Was the original proposer suggesting that
cite be used for quotations?  Titles are, conventionally, italicised.
There are other, similar uses for which are more generalised concept
of cite might be useful, e.g. the names of plants in botanical
texts.

Note that the correct styling for cite in Chinese text would be
with << >> around the name, so the italics association is language
sensitive.  It is possible that my botanical example breaks in that
case.