Are Summoners evil?

[Enkidoh]

You're confusing a full Primal with an egi though - which are two totally different things. Primals are a thoughtform, an idea made corporeal and given intelligence, and yes, they require enormous amounts of aether to sustain themselves. Egis on the other hand, are merely a small portion of elemental power that exists after a Primal has been summoned and defeated, think of it like mist left after a rain. A player SMN simply takes that elemental power and forms it into an egi, a construct vaguely mimicking the original Primal but devoid of will or intelligence. Of course, SMNs could use their power for selfish or evil, as Tristan did during the SMN Job quest line, but that's like any power - 'great power comes great responsibility' and all that.

Also, an egi is summoned using the SMN's own aether, not the land's (Hydaelyn's), so Hydaelyn Herself is not damaged by SMNs summoning Egis, only summoning Primals or other aetheric 'entities'. This is also the reason why we don't yet have egi versions of Ramuh, Shiva, Leviathan or other Primals - we simply lack enough aether in our body to sustain such egis at this time. It's definitely possible in the future though....