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

[not_ya_wify]

I'm pretty sure that's not true. I'm pretty sure rejoining means the consciousness of the shard soul gets dissolved leaving only the source version's ego. This would explain why we never hear the voices of the 7 people rejoined with us (the 7th during our lifetime), they don't exist anymore, just the aether of their/our soul merged back with us. Ardbert's silence since 5.3 suggests he's probably ceased to exist by now.

So yeah it's worse than genocide it's the total cessation of existence for everyone on the rejoined shard.

But maybe I'm putting more thought into this than the writer's did. A shame if it's true, Ardbert could've been kept around as a recurring character that only we can see/hear and talk to, occassionally manifesting and talking to us.

First of all, the other seven shards did not merge with us during our current lifetime. Calamities were thousands of years apart.

Secondly, it wouldn't make sense for Ardbert to keep "talking to me" if he is now a part of me. We're not separate entities anymore. I am neither the original WoL nor am I Ardbert. I am whatever product came out of the fusion of WoL and Ardbert. Of course, the WoL's personality overpowers Ardbert's because the WoL was already the amalgamation of 7 shards rejoined while Ardbert is only one shard.

[YukikoKurosawa]

First of all, the other seven shards did not merge with us during our current lifetime. Calamities were thousands of years apart.

7th calamity happened while you were alive, canonically. It was only 5 years ago. It was the events of 1.0 that literally led to ARR. The 6 previous calamities happened before you were alive, though.