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

[Brinne]

Roughly, from the interview (I want to emphasize again that my Japanese is not great, so please, anyone feel free to smack me if I'm getting something drastically wrong), what he lists is: seeing the "return to the star" as beautiful, taking it upon themselves to create beings even with souls, feeling it's better to erase creations that are slightly flawed. He thought all of these would paint a picture that was "very scary," but acknowledges that that isn't what happened among the playerbase.

[Theodric]

I'm just not sure what is meant to be 'scary' about the Ancients when compared to people canonically being at risk of being eaten by monsters the moment they leave the safety of a settlement. For slavers to be actively kidnapping people and selling them. For a race of people typically unable to wield aether being persecuted and forced out of fertile lands and forced to live in the bleak, frozen wastes to the north. For poachers to hunt species to actual or near extinction.

There's numerous examples of the Sundered being far crueller and more callous than the Ancients. I rather suspect that the original plan was to have Venat consider the Sundered to be a failed experiment and try to Sunder them again - because they in no way passed the ridiculous 'test' she sought to enforce on them. Nothing they achieved was done without significant outside aid and with that in mind...she could have just had a conversation with the Convocation back in the Ancient world to attempt to resolve the Meteion predicament.

I am just as baffled by this as I was at hearing that he was surprised at people liking Emet-Selch while not liking Hermes and that being something he couldn't wrap his head around.

Given that he was also confused by people wanting stubble for male characters...I honestly believe he isn't getting any meaningful feedback from the official forum.

[Ixon]

There's numerous examples of the Sundered being far crueller and more callous than the Ancients.

Curious for curious sake, was there any sort of written or spoken proof that the Ancients were not prone to as malicious or cruel intentions as the sundered? I assume that just because we did not get a side quest where someone in Elpis tried to rob you or sell your organs doesn't mean all of Etheirys was innocent? We know that in Elpis specifically, if we considered all creations to be "life" some of their actions could be seen as "cruel" akin to things like animal testing(not exactly the same realm, but the closest thing I could relate it too). There were obviously laws and for those laws there must have been people breaking them. Even Hesperos in Pandemonium for all we know(so far) could be a more evil or cynical Ancient. Perhaps this was their thought of trying to present the Ancients as "scary" as possible without going too far off the deep end? just speculation for fun.