A lot of people seemed to love it and I haven't been able to pinpoint the disconnect other than generally the people who did accepted the conclusions that were presented. Namely: 1) You cannot change the past, 2) The Ancients were 100% going to become The Plenty, and 3) The Ancients could never figure out a way to deal with a dynamis threat. This, by extension, led them to fully accept that the sundering was not only necessary, but the lesser of two evils. A such, yes, Venat is the tragic heroine as depicted, subjecting mankind to an unthinkable act but the only one which potentially ensured their survival.
Unfortunately, as has been hashed out repeatedly, this case simply wasn't made. Venat's excuses after Ktsis are all easily debunked with information we received starting from Elidibus in the CT to that point. Both Yoshi-P and Ishikawa refer to Venat's "beliefs". They weren't objective truths nor could they be as it would require her being able to predict with absolute certainty the future of the Ancients. She says herself she has a "basic understanding" of dynamis, but it's not her field of study, so she also lacked the knowledge to conclude the Ancients couldn't counteract Meteion. It also seemed ridiculous to me that Meteion is an Ancient created problem, but Ancients can't create a solution to it?
According to the internet :P, I'm exactly the type of person to whom Hermes should have resonated and I didn't understand him at all. I found him instead to be emotionally immature and illogical when it came to the subject of death, certainly not the "most human" of the Ancients (a descriptor I see frequently). His temper tantrum in Ktsis was at least consistent with this characterization. The problem is, again, they're trying to re-frame it as something else. Everything regarding the Ancients could be summed up with they show us one thing but tell us it's another. It's the gaslighting expansion.
Thematically, I can't figure that out either. There doesn't seem to be any consistency as I've seen many people with depression say it spoke to them and many people with depression (like myself) who found it full of platitudes. I absolutely hate the "forge ahead" message they keep pushing. I'm immediately reminded of the people who give unsolicited advice to someone who's suffering, usually without having any idea of what the person is going through. As if a supposedly uplifting quote can be blanket applied to everyone in every situation. Not to mention that this doesn't affect the WoL or Scions at all. None of whom lost anything, display any emotional or psychological damage, or (aside from the WoL in a quest chain that's locked behind a 2 expansion old raid) feel the need to reflect. It's just business as usual. The world itself outside of two zones barely experienced the Final Days, which I was hoping would cause the sundered to have more empathy for the Ancients. Instead, it just feels like a "We're #1!" situation despite their heavy reliance upon the unsundered to succeed.
All I know for sure is I was not the target audience for this expansion and this is the first time I've experienced this feeling in an RPG. As I said, I think they were focused more on themes and messages than telling a good and compelling story. There are other issues, of course, like being strong-armed through the narrative, my character being forced to react in ways contradictory to myself, and being expected to accept conclusions without the writing having taken the necessary steps for me to reach them.
This turned into a ramble. :P
Same. Especially after the NieR crossover doubled down on Emet's 12k years of "hatred and heartbreak". I could accept what Brinne said about Emet not wanting to upset the WoL, but the leap to commending Venat was too much. I can't help but wonder if that was also Yoshi-P's doing because it was so character inconsistent and didn't match with the surrounding dialog. "We need to have fan favorite, Emet, praise Venat too to really sell her character!" Speaking of which, did anyone else notice his Elpis description of her essentially paints her as a Mary Sue? She's apparently the best there is at everything. :| This also seems in conflict with his other dialog that suggests he didn't like her even back then.