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

[Striker44]

You should replay those scenes, too. We are shown, emphatically, that they even possessed funeral rites for their living creations which were killed accidently.

They weren't grieving for them, though. It was more of a "oops, their energy returned to the star, no big deal" philosophy. Heck, Hermes was specifically called out repeatedly by Emet precisely for seeing their creations as actually deserving of any concern whatsoever over their fates.

[Tama-Kanzashi]

They weren't grieving for them, though. It was more of a "oops, their energy returned to the star, no big deal" philosophy. Heck, Hermes was specifically called out repeatedly by Emet precisely for seeing their creations as actually deserving of any concern whatsoever over their fates.

...they put flowers with them and were genuinely saddened by their deaths. They asked us how we say goodbye to the dead to incorporate that into that rite. I have no idea what you are talking about.

[Theodric]

...they put flowers with them and were genuinely saddened by their deaths. They asked us how we say goodbye to the dead to incorporate that into that rite. I have no idea what you are talking about.

Not only that, though we see many researchers show genuine concern for the player character despite mistaking them for a 'familiar'. Even going so far as to offer up aether to ensure that the 'familiar' does not fade away. If that wasn't enough, many researchers are also shown to be very attached to their creations and those that go missing are shown to induce worry.

[Tama-Kanzashi]

Not only that, though we see many researchers show genuine concern for the player character despite mistaking them for a 'familiar'. Even going so far as to offer up aether to ensure that the 'familiar' does not fade away. If that wasn't enough, many researchers are also shown to be very attached to their creations and those that go missing are shown to induce worry.

I remember one researcher in Poieten Oikos fixing up a uh...questionable smoothie and being absolutely dejected when we refuse to drink it because it's kinda nasty, prompting us to say that we should talk to him anytime if we ever feel faint. This is my experience from DE dialogue, but yes it happened several times.

There is also several flavor dialogues prompted by walking by that talk about how much they love their creations and want to spend time with them.

If that is not genuine care and attachment, I don't know what it is.