That's basically it. I'm mostly thinking about cartoons from 1930's and 1940's. Many old cartoon characters used to wear gloves, many of which survived in popular culture and kept it as part of their designs until these days, even after decades of redesigns, like Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny, Goofy.
Why was that element of the overall design such commonplace?
Edit: typos
Toon gloves, as they are known, have yet to be explicitly explained in any literature. No interviews with any lead designers have produced any definitive answers, either.
The usage of gloves is occasionally pointed out by the toon characters themselves, like how the character Bobby Zimmeruski asks "Do you ever wonder why we're always, like, wearing gloves?" in An Extremely Goofy Movie.
Despite the lack of official comment on the practice, the supposed and oft-cited reason for the use of toon gloves is to draw attention and distinguish the hands of a cartoon character, particularly in black and white cartoons where contrast between body parts is required in order for a character to hold their hands in front of themselves while allowing their actions to remain clear.
The practice continues as a tradition, though as color cartoons have arrived the need for visually distinctive gloves on cartoon characters has fallen.
In addition to OP's question, can anyone explain why they mostly have 4 fingers, as well?
This is an interesting question that has very little importance, just my sort of thing. I am rather amazed that there is a video regarding this.