(Maybe this will be moot once the Parsoid implementation of the Cite extension moves into the Cite repo.)
Currently Parsoid's SiteConfig::responsiveReferences needs to parse Cite's configuration options ($wgCiteResponsiveReferences) in order to determine whether responsive references are enabled.
Cite should instead export this in a manner that doesn't require Parsoid to know the details of Cite's configuration options. Perhaps a Hook, perhaps a Service, perhaps a static method...