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

[Ixon]

I wonder if the disconnect between what we see in Elpis vs what the Ancients laid out as their "thought out plan" were either because the thought out plan simply failed or just another disconnect in the plot. From what we had seen in dialogue, the Ancients had a plan involving Zodiark to sacrifice ancients the first time, sacrifice ancients again, then sacrifice the new life born from the "restored" Ehtheirys to bring all the sacrificed ancients back(someone correct me if I am wrong). However, both in ShB dialogue and in the Elpis cut scene it made it appear more that the first set of sacrifices was intended to work, didn't work, all hell broke loose, and they were going for round two. In the cut scene they were in between the first and second sacrifice, however the ancients where befuddled and not at all acting like things were going to plan. If it wasn't due to a simple hole in the story, I wonder if there is anything that could be explained as to why the plan with Zodiark was not going as intended.

[PawPaw]

I wonder if the disconnect between what we see in Elpis vs what the Ancients laid out as their "thought out plan" were either because the thought out plan simply failed or just another disconnect in the plot. From what we had seen in dialogue, the Ancients had a plan involving Zodiark to sacrifice ancients the first time, sacrifice ancients again, then sacrifice the new life born from the "restored" Ehtheirys to bring all the sacrificed ancients back(someone correct me if I am wrong). However, both in ShB dialogue and in the Elpis cut scene it made it appear more that the first set of sacrifices was intended to work, didn't work, all hell broke loose, and they were going for round two. In the cut scene they were in between the first and second sacrifice, however the ancients where befuddled and not at all acting like things were going to plan. If it wasn't due to a simple hole in the story, I wonder if there is anything that could be explained as to why the plan with Zodiark was not going as intended.

Their plan to sacrifice 50% of the population to stop the Final Days worked the first time exactly the way they planned it. The second sacrifice only happened because though the FD had been stopped, it had done enough damage to the world itself for it to basically be dead. So the second sacrifice was to allow the world to heal and be restored.