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

[CrownySuccubus]

Particularly when Emet-Selch could simply change course. It never is implied to have warped their decision making at the time.

In ShB, Emet-Selch directly makes the case that since Zodiark tempered him, he cannot change course. He specifically used it in the context of the Ascians existing solely to obey Zodiark's will.



Like many things, EW changed or ignored this, and we're told Tempering was something that the Ascians deliberately created AFTER the Sundering.

We know that Emet tried to change course, but couldn't for what he felt were justified reasons. But did he come to that conclusion because (according to himself) he was tempered, or were those attempts to fight off the tempering that failed, and he simply justified them later?

It's a chicken-or-egg dilemma.