What's the point with that quite lackluster story in Endwalker?

[KizuyaKatogami]

I think it's fairly safe to assume that their higher aether density and quicker arrival wouldn't have made a difference, given that Emet quite plainly tells us that they wouldn't have made it as far as we did.

He says that but that’s with things occurring my how they did. Had Venat actually told them everything and didn’t kept secrets, things could’ve gone in a completely different direction and the ancients might’ve actually stood a chance. As for the Aerith comment, i’ll point you to ff13-2 and ff15. Both games that ended up killing off the main protagonists at the end of the game, not in the middle. So there’s really no excuse.Its especially bad when they keep resorting to emotional manipulation when they talk about people theyve lost and its the same 3-4 faces from 3 expansions ago because they dont have anyone else to pick from lmao.