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

[Rulakir]

Meanwhile the team that brought us Heavensward is still locked into FFXVI which shows no signs of coming out anytime soon, so no one knows when they'll be back if at all.

I would have so much more hype for 7.0 if I knew Maehiro wrote the outline and/or would be returning as the MSQ writer.

Shadowbringers was presented as a battle between two opposing heroes seeking to safeguard their respective people and continue their existence. With the position Venat had put them both in, only one could emerge victorious.

This part is still so unforgivably sadistic to me. As if the fact that Venat sundering Azem, her protege, wasn't bad enough, she spares Emet, then knowingly pits the two against each other in a fight to the death. Once again, why in TF would I trust the person not only responsible for ending my original incarnation by splitting my soul asunder, but knowingly guiding me to the point that I had to kill one of the people who was dearest to me (and vice versa)? Frankly, on a psychological level, it's worse than any other antagonist in the game has done.