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

[Jandor]

Its not exactly irrelevant. We're not outright told that. We're told they didnt win, where the circumstances were they didnt know what they were facing. We're shown they could in some ways manipulate dynamis.They had an entire facility that could literally help them hone said power. There's nothing pointing to the fact they couldnt have adapted and come together to combat Meteion.

Emet remembers:


Emet has been watching:


Emet wouldn't have done better:


You're not supposed to think Venat is evil or stupid, it's been one of your complaints if I recall correctly, and I doubt you're supposed to get the impression that Emet is lying to us here, or maybe missing some solution that he's just not thought of. When both those characters tell you their people couldn't have done better, and they know them far better than we do, then it's a safe bet that they really couldn't have done better.