Lack of stakes? I don't understand.

What about when Tesleen was horrifically turned into a sin eater?

Or when you entered Holminster Switch for the first time and witnessed all those innocent villagers being victimized by the sin eaters?

Or when the sin eaters invaded Lakeland at night and decimated the Crystarium army?

Those are just a few examples from Shadowbringers. Yes, they are all minor characters, but I personally felt for all of them. All of these parts of the story definitely established high stakes, at least for me.

I didn't have to know these characters to feel bad for things I saw on the screen. It made the threat of the sin eaters very real.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that the main characters should always be invincible. I'm just trying to argue why the current story has been phenomenal in terms of building up high stakes.

Shadowbringers did a great job in building up tension, suspense, and drama that eventually led up to an excellent emotional payoff.

Establishing high stakes is important, but it can be done without killing main characters.

Killing off a character just for the sake of being subversive can end up having the opposite effect (like Star Wars: The Last Jedi).

There are lots of fantastic stories out there that don't kill of their main characters, like Lord of the Rings.

Again, I'm not saying I'm opposed to a main character being killed off (as long as it's done well). I just don't understand how people can claim that this story has been "low stakes" so far.