Zodiark's point of view we already got in SHB though. What more was there to explore? Elidibus was his literal heart and he was explored in 5.2 and 5.3, and with him gone that left Zodiark without an actual character of his own. 5.0 spent a lot of time in the final zone fleshing out the ascians and their past and their reasons for summoning Zodiark. Hydaelyn needed more time because she was brought into question with SHB and was our benefactor/patron deity throughout the story, especially early on. Zodiark didn't have that personal connection to the protagonists. I don't feel like there was really much more to learn about Zodiark, and with his heart gone, not much to get out of him character wise either. It would have just been a rehash of what we learned in SHB.

For end days, the role quests really do not do what you're looking for. They deal with blasphemes that are loose in their respective regions, and delve into some issues those places are having and explore characters a little. But while the blasphemes are bad, it never hits end days status and if you're looking for worldwide apocalypse, yeah they're going to disapoint.

Honestly though, I'm glad that EW was less formulaic. I wouldn't want every dungeon to be a tower, I'm glad only two of them were towers. I wouldn't want every dungeon to be the same thing. Red skies and fires everywhere would get old fairly quickly. Not every dungeon was dealing with 'end days' in the sense that the 85 dungeon was but they were all important to the overall journey and goal.

I liked SHB but I wouldn't want every zone in EW to be a similar pattern of 'go to area, help people fight monsters and not give into despair, move on to next area.'