Yes, which is why Shadowbringers, with its theme of villains with 'light-side' window-dressing, was where we got Elidibus the Warrior of Light Primal who cloaks himself in the stolen desires of other Warriors of Light to facilitate his goal of Salvation for his people at the expense of the worlds of the Warriors of Light to whose prayer he is using. That's where our sympathetic but still must be stopped motives and decidedly not-evil in appearance 'Zodiark' was, so actual Zodiark needed to be something different.

Joining Zodiark - or even seeing his continued existence as a solution that the WoL would entertain- was never an option, so his visual design reflects that, and thinking of how to rewrite XIV to make a even somewhat-pro-Zodiark not dismissed out of hand I think the seeds would have to have been planted in ARR. At least for me judging how much time can pass on a story before a writer swaps the alignment tables. But EW the only part of how Zodiark that honestly surprised me was that his defeat happened before the 'Hydaelyn tests your strength to ensure your conviction and strength are enough defeat Zodiark and then Final Days' trial, which I was unsure would be a trial or solo duty. And the mask and tentacles on his design.

But hey, the beauty of message boards and forums, to see what interpretation and emotional reaction that thought was obvious to them and to discover radically different but no less valid ones.