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

[Lunaxia]

From what we hear and read of Varis though if i’m not mistaken he’s referred to as a great and fair leader according to the garlean people. If we go based off of a country’s misdeeds then i’d consider the city state leaders just as abysmal in every single respect.

A great and fair leader (who employed censorship, hung dissenters or else ran them out of the country, and sought to deploy a deadly gas with the potential to kill thousands.) Apart from that, he's a thoroughly delightful chap.

I will say his ending was bizarrely grisly though, I was actually quite shocked they went that far, especially given the overall "lighter" tone of Endwalker. I almost felt sorry for him. I don't think anyone else has come close, except possibly Adeledji.

Agreed. I wouldn't mind finding out more about Garlemald's recent history, but for all the lauding I've seen of Varis, he was an absolutely abysmal leader in every single respect you can possibly imagine and really showed the problems inherent in a system where blood relation is seen as conferring the right to be in charge of a country. I can't see the people that have survived to see the rise and crash of a system of government like that in their lifetime rushing out to put the crown on whatever ninny with a drop of Emet-Selch's blood happens by.

I think by now the Garleans are probably more than a little scarred by their experiences, and the last thing they need is yet another would-be dictator proferring a benevolent hand and promising to guide them out of the darkness. I'd be having war flashbacks (quite literally.)