While I'd acknowledge that the situation here is very complicated and nebulous, I'd also put forward the additional question of 'what difference does it make?'

I'm not saying this dismissively, like it's just not a worthwhile question to ask, because it is. By asking that, I mean... well, what's the functional difference between Meteion, who by all info we have doesn't (or by all evidence shouldn't) have a soul, and something that we know does have one, like, say, Hildibrand? We know Alpha eventually got a soul, but we've also been with Alpha both before and after that point; did that really change anything about how he behaved or functioned?