Quote Originally Posted by SeriousPan View Post
Not really, the key difference is how we exist. We exist at the cost of no one but the Ancients and from them sprouted several shards of individual life that subsists on itself and affects no one else. The Memories require the living to be killed and have their souls taken away and denied the cycle of rebirth, effectively taking them out of existance permanently. It's unsustainable long term and, as Sphene mentions, the amount of people it supports is increasing all the time. One city might require 10 souls harvest one day... then 20... then 100... then 1000.

More people, more death. There was no alternative way to keep the system operational. AI Sphene activates an Intershard WMD to wipe out an insane amount of life all at once in several different shards. The comparison falls apart as soon as it becomes "save the living or spare a system that will run out of souls to harvest eventually and shut down anyway."
That's why looking at other options and bringing up the omicrons specifically. They accomplished essentially the same thing Sphene was trying to do without the whole soul sucking business.
Even if it didn't work out in the end, offering up a potential alternate solution to their problem that we are very much aware of would've been nice. "Hey, rather than aether intensive hard light hologram bodies, have you considered mechanical ones? We could hook you up with some people that know how to make that work if you'd just put your apocalypse plan on hold for like a week."