Can we get choices that really matter and have a effect?

[Elladie]

Doesn't make you any less wrong though. You have to provide some proof of the Scions, or us for that matter, being tempered though. Remember Her first words to us.

The whole point of this expansion was that while our lives do not matter to the Ascians. Our lives matter to us. To Alphinaud, Alisaie, Ryne, Y'shtola, Urianger, Thancred. To all the peoples of the Source, the First and all the shards that are left. That's not even going into that they may have made it impossible to make their world whole again thanks to their utter incompetence turning the 13th Shard into a literal demon dimension and nearly doing the same to the first. This tells me that they are just bumbling through not even giving a thought to what the heck they are doing or how many "Inferior" lives they snuff out. They're like psychopathic Mr. Magoo's at this point. It's not even like they are all that either. Gaius has killed, probably lesser, Ascians. And You are 2/3 on the Unsundered ones.

As much as I like Emet I have to admit his big speech in Amaurot falls flat on it's butt for 2 reasons
1) His point that the "Inferior races fight and War and really totally hate each other" falls flat because, unless he's forgotten, him and his are responsible for 90% of the conflicts on the source that we know of. And judging by the meddling on the first, the other shards too. Did he also forget that he himself was responsible for 2 of the most destructive, expansionist and warlike empires the source had ever known.

2) His talking about how "we wouldn't sacrifice half of ours to save the other" is outright BTFO'd by the Crystal Exarch even being there. He literally comes from a future whos people sacrificed themselves to give the people of another possible future a second chance.

It's also why his broken glass analogy doesn't even make sense. Have you tried to fix a broken mirror? It's nigh impossible.

Since you ended on a philosophical point I'll end it on one of my own. The Ends Don't Justify The Means.

Just to clear up a couple of points for you.

Emet Selch suggests that the default solution for the Spoken races is war. He doesn't deny using that to his own ends but, had that not been their default solution, he couldn't have used Allag and Garlemald in the way he did. He claims to have looked often for more worthy characteristics in the Spoken races and been constantly disappointed. We can argue he was disappointed because his tempering made him so, but the short story about him does indicate that his feelings and reactions were genuine i.e. he believed them to be true.

The people in the Bad Future did not sacrifice themselves as you say. The short story from OMG clearly states that the majority opposed it, even going so far as to attack the Ironworks to try and stop it. One could therefore argue, if one felt inclined, that the Exarch is no better than the Ascians since he forced the sacrifice upon everyone in the Bad Future regardless.

If the story of Shadowbringers shows us anything, it shows us that our beliefs about the Truth are very much based on our perspective. Options to make meaningful decisions would therefore work very well in the context of this story which is what the OP is saying. However it wouldn't be possible in this game because that isn't how this game is designed. The story exists, we are there for it, but we're not the one making the decisions