I think that it would have made for a better story if the game did not decide to weirdly attempt to justify the genocide of the Ancients. Whether that meant going to Elpis or not.

Endwalker fell apart in the eyes of many, I suspect, because of the inconsistent morality and 'themes'. The game loves to force the antagonists to be sympathetic and placed in impossible to comprehend bleak circumstances only to treat them as a nuisance for daring to stand up and do everything possible to in order to preserve and protect their loved ones. It's fair for the protagonists to seek to do the same thing, of course, though the story has become plagued with situations where the protagonists will do the exact same thing they accuse the antagonists of doing yet it's conveniently brushed under the rug.