Quote Originally Posted by Veloran View Post
Steps of Faith? You go out of your way to recruit other adventurers and ready the Crystal Braves, and the adventurers you recruit are literally still present in the story to this day. In other words, it's what adventurers helping you should look like and the obvious story results from such an instance, but nothing else abides by this formula. In fact the presence of other adventurers in multiple instances seriously harms narrative cohesion in various situations.
Those adventurers are present because they were the winners of a contest that would get players' avatars put into the game. They aren't the only ones; the miqo'te Thancred is chatting up just before the Crystal Braves turn traitor and try to arrest him is also one such character.

Quote Originally Posted by Veloran View Post
Bismarck? It was a spur of the moment plan conducted during a race against Thordan to get the key, while WoL was still wanted in the city-states. And after it's done not only are you clearly alone on the rock, but that's explicitly taken advantage of to ambush WoL and steal the key while nobody is there to help you.
This one is actually very muddy. It was not a spur of the moment plan; it required thought and planning, as well as materials from Ishgard (the chains and dragonkiller harpoons). It's very improvisational, but not at all poorly planned. It's also past the point in the story where your name's been cleared. (Lolorito specifically mentions the Gration, though not by name, during your "debriefing" on his plan to stop Adeledji's coup and how Ilberd sent the thing down the toilet.)

That said, yeah, you are shown alone on the island after the battle. So, who knows.

Usually, you are given narrative time to go in with a plan. If so it's plausible (if not probable) you went in with a crew. However, sometimes that isn't the case, such as with Ifrit and Tsukuyomi. If so, you... probably did not have a crew for the battle. Shadowbringers sidesteps the issue through both narrative framing (you had a hole punched in reality to bring you and only you to Norvrandt!) and the introduction of the Trust system for dungeons, as well as Exarch G'raha summoning other heroes for the final showdown with Hades.

The journal cheekily mentioning your Echo-blessed buddies feels less like a serious piece of information and more like the writers making light of the fact that despite the narrative presenting things as if you had done them solo, as an MMO group content is the standard. As such I don't take those very seriously, owing to the implausibility of some explanations (like Lyse's "Maybe s/he has a bunch of friends who just happened to take a fishing trip to the Far East and are coincidentally close by?").

As for the central issue? TFS Freeza Dilemma, and we can change our appearance too easily to be instantly recognizable. There's also the issue of Imperial censorship, so knowledge of the (in)famous Eikon Slayer might not be widely circulated outside of the upper echelons of the Imperial government. (Still, having such a(n in)famous reputation amongst the Imperial troops that they drop their weapons and flee on sight would be cool, like Ghost of Tsushima.)

Most other antagonistic nations / factions are either completely foreign (Eulmore) or have their antagonism be flash in the pan (the Masks).