You bring up an interesting point! Perhaps its his family that is pushing the dinner (maybe through conversation of having this perfect family/ relationship) and maybe not so much him and like you said, he wants to "Craft the illusion". Kind of disheartening, but understandable if family is putting pressure on him
I'm not sure you caught the second possible interpretation as it deviates from the first entirely. The second paragraph of what I wrote may present the situation in a more positive light.
The Moon often describes a situation where you are leaving a comfort zone, so possibly this is him pulling you out of yours.
I also like to think of Moon as sometimes exploring life's "other" possibilities. So for example, if in your self-reads, you commonly see Moon as a "bad" card... that is, it immediately drums up fears and imagined scenarios that create anxiety and other emotional impairments for you, then this could be the bf's "bucking the trend" so to speak of pushing you to confront your fears more directly. He may really think this meeting will have a positive outcome. So maybe it will "enhance" your relationship will him, but it's also possible he is trying to reinforce a positive relationship between yourself and your fears. Maybe you have a more cynical view of the nuclear family. He may have what he considers a fairly well-adjusted family background, but because it is foreign to you, it conjures images of fluid/dreamy/unrealistic/fairy-tale-like interpertations...
Another possibility, say you are a social recluse or more anxiety prone or maybe you've never had close relationships with family or maybe you've not often been given the distinction of meeting parents without there being some caveat. Perhaps he is trying to bring you out of your shell. Perhaps family is incredibly outgoing and easily accepting, so maybe rather than assuming the worst, it's possible your bf is trying to "enhance" your life by pushing you towards other possibilities.
Perhaps he feels--contrary maybe to your own belief--that his family will be rather accepting to you and that you would fit right in... so this is an opportunity to more or less create a positive association with these fears rather than a negative. Maybe for you this is too much like a fairytale, crafting an image that doesn't exist, but for him this break from reality may be what the relationship needs to furay into in order to explore what the relationship has to offer and also what other possibiltiies there could be. It could be an emotional trip, a social trip, or even just further exploring the connection you have together since obviously you would be meeting the biological connection to his existing. Either way, with it being a major, I would not understate the significance of it's imagery... he may be giving the relationship a kick in the pants or he may actually feel legitimately you check all the boxes and he sees you fitting in quite well with the "fairy tale" life we all strive for. I don't think that this is necessarily a "bad" thing... sometimes fear and cynicism is what runs people's many people lives and governs their decision making and this is sometimes the minds way of breaking that pattern.
So in short, maybe he is trying to get you to explore "your wild side". Maybe you like to keep your hands on the rails at all times and this is not "obligatory" in the typical sense, but rather he may feel this meeting may be good for you (and him) to approach the relationship under a new (and foreign) life.
It's possible many angles here may actually bare some place in the truth. Maybe this is just a "rite of passage" for your relationship. However, it being the Moon and a multifaceted card in itself, I would strongly consider that to be the case here that nothing here is entirely black and white. It after all thrives in the greys.
