I think where the Elves cross the line is in the making of the Rings. They create objects which are designed to control the world & the flow of time. The Rings are 'unnatural'. They are manifestations of the Machine, designed to control & coerce the world. With the Rings the Elves are attempting to take over, & essentially rejecting their role. I think this is why Tolkien says they 'flirted with Sauron' - who's raison d'aitre is control & enslavement of all life. Its another 'fall' in their long history of falls. Its one thing to encourage other races to love the world, by philosophy & example. Its another thing entirely to force other races/the world to obey your will, but that's what the Rings, made with the highest intentions, are designed to do. The Rings are the ultimate refusal to 'let go'. Galadriel, in the end, has to be forced to acknowledge where her 'desire' would take her. But I think all the Elves finally see that the One was the inevitable result of the making of the Rings, & probabaly if Sauron hadn't made it, the Elves would have made a 'One Ring' themselves, as their 'ultimate' achievement, & that Ring would have been, in effect, if not in intention, what Sauron's Ring was, & caused the same problems.
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