The Ascians rejoining the shards would by necessity lead to whatever 'Azem' that results not being us by any worthwhile metrics, because them doing so would've taken more than enough time for any playable race, including viera, to die of old age even if we survived any of the Calamities. (Which we wouldn't have, we did die in the Eighth Calamity.)

So at that point it just feels like an extra twist for twists' sake, what does this do if 'an Azem from an aborted far future that isn't literally exactly us' is true that 'Azem is our many-years-before predecessor that also isn't literally exactly us' doesn't?