Meteion ruined Endwalker and made absolutely no sense for the story. We meet Meteion in Elpis, mind you, a level 86 zone. That means we are over the halfway point for the expansion, and are close to the finale of it. Meeting the big bad of the expansion - even the entire story - over halfway in it makes no sense in my opinion. Meteion should have just stayed as a happy little bird girl, but instead, we just had to do the entire Ktisis Hyperboreia arc of the story and mess everything up forever. Doesn't Meteion have like, millions, or even infinite amounts of sisters? Surely there are more of them than just the one Endsinger we fought, right? Yeah, makes no sense.

This leads to my 2nd hot take: We should have just let Zodiark fully heal and fight him as the final trial of the expansion

This leads to my 3rd hot take: Fandaniel did nothing for the story during the Mare Lamentorum arc besides ruin it.