Endwalker was "meh" (for reasons other than technical issues)

[YukikoKurosawa]

The teleporter wasn't powered by aether, or nothing implied it. It's highly advanced technology. The allagans had teleporters in Azys Lla, alongside aetherite crystals, said teleporters are what the Garleans used as basis for the teleporter in the tower of babil. The aether beam they used to blast the moon seal =/= the teleporter. Don't know why they would use the device made for traveling to the moon to attack the moon.

[Jandor]

The technology existing is fine, despite the qualms I'll have about it's physical representation being so underwhelming. That, however, is aesthetic taste that is 100% subjective. The biggest issue that rung to me was the fact that the aether that supposedly was used to power the teleporter was completely drained just previous in the same scene in order to shatter the keys that kept Zodiark in check. Failing to break the last one with the very blatant remark that the aether had been depleted. Considering that the trek between earth and moon, regardless of technological efficiency, is certainly no small feat, I struggle to believe there was still enough for him and Zenos to be sent to it's surface. That's not even mentioning that we were sent up there as well. Whether I misunderstood the scene and mayhaps it uses the aether of the individual which would explain the WoL and Co. heading up there would justify that latter bit, but Zenos being Garlean and therefor unable to process Aether and Fandaniel stating that there was none, potentially implying the machine, himself, or both are out, made the whole thing make little sense.

Garleans have aether, they just can't manipulate it innately.

Zenos however, has been able to manipulate aether for a while, he found his innate inability to do so an annoying vulnerability in his youth and was one of the few people willing to sponsor Aulus's research into giving Garleans the ability to wield it.

Regardless though, Garleans are apparently able to teleport using external machinery just fine. It's mentioned in the Garlean base that they use what are essentially the same aetherytes that we do, they just require a machine to cast the teleport spell for them.

Further to all that, it's also established earlier in the story that it's possible to configure aetherytes to send people to other destinations, even if they lack magic and have never attuned to the destination. One of the first things we do in this expansion is chuck Thancred in to one in order to get him to Thavnair. An ascian/telephoroi/allagan/whatever teleporter achieving the same thing is not unreasonable.

Edit: and to add, it's established back in 1.0, and later reconfirmed in Stormblood IIRC, that teleporting uses anima. That particular resources relationship with aether is pretty damn vague, but the machine expending all its aether trying to blow up the ward doesn't mean its teleporting ability would cease to function, as it doesn't necessarily require much, if any, aether to work.

[Berteaux_Braumegain]

I think the best example of this is when you're body-swapped in Garlemald and, at the end of that quest, you literally have to crawl across part of the map before you finally trigger the cutscene.

The crawling part lasts 15 seconds, so I wouldn't call that the best example.

The best example is stealthing after Urianger on the Moon, only for him to immediately turn around and go "Ah, yes, the Warrior of Light. It's good to see you here. Allow me to tell you what I'm doing without any subterfuge on my part at all."

[Lauront]

With Hermes, he comes across as moderately sympathetic initially - until you realise others are accommodating him, but it keeps going to further and further extremes, until he wants even species inimical to the star's broader well being and balance to live for the sake of it. I think at first Emet-Selch wanted to remove him from that environment and put his talents to better uses; later, he realised he was manifestly not fit for it.

I agree with the remainder of your points as well. The closest we get from the Scions being critical of her is how Y'shtola characterises the sundering after the encounter, i.e. even if it was neither just nor kind, trying to imbue a meaning into it that may well have not originally been there - at least not before the Elpis situation.

[KitingGenbu]

I was going to type a lot of negatives about the story but I feel that Emet-Selch and parts of Esteinen kind of gave me my money's worth story wise. I'll probably be one of the only ones who likes how 'simple' Zenos is as well. I also liked Venat but not Haedalyn, if that makes sense.

[Lauront]

I was going to type a lot of negatives about the story but I feel that Emet-Selch and parts of Esteinen kind of gave me my money's worth story wise. I'll probably be one of the only ones who likes how 'simple' Zenos is as well. I also liked Venat but not Haedalyn, if that makes sense.

Nah, I ended up being satisfied with how they used Zenos. They stuck to their guns on him and I found some of his lines interesting.

[EaMett]

SPOILER warning

The Garlemald arc was on point. Not entirely sure why OP took offense to it. It's very reminiscent of indoctrination and dictatorships. Just substitute Garlemald with North Korea and magic-users with the US soldiers, and the story arc and character decisions make perfect sense.
Any story will have lulls, in fact, you need lulls for high points to deliver decent impact. Whether it be in story or execution. I do think some of the lulls could have been reworked though (more on that later)

Honestly, I thought the production quality was great. And although FF14 had been a sequence of 90s anime tropes up to this point, the directing matured greatly and we actually got something fresher and more subtle this expansion (overall). I thought it was a pretty big leap forward from what we had in the past. I would expect that people who haven't watched/read a lot of 90s Japanese media would have enjoyed the previous stuff more, but for me, it has always been a bit of a rehash of stuff that had been done better elsewhere, so EW felt great in comparison.

The one issue I had was the ending being a little rushed. Meteion falling into despair is something we can make sense of. After all, we have a few cutscenes, an entire zone, and a dungeon to understand where her despair is coming from. But the thing is, she doesn't just succumb to despair, she basically turns into a school shooter and we aren't given any walkthrough in her transformation. So now, at the 11th hour, we're introduced to a new character walking through school and attempting to kill everyone we love because "life ain't worth living" and we're meant to relate somehow? That part was very rushed IMO and the story would have gained massively from partially removing some of the slower sections (moon bunny fanservice, Labyrinthos spaceship building) to build up her character more and really drive her transition in a way that was more relatable.

I also think it would've made a lot more sense to really drive the idea that we needed Emet and Hythlodaes at the end. That invoking them was absolutely necessary, and in turn, justify not being able to bring two scions back. That would have elevated all the self-sacrifices scenes and decisions up to that point.

Zenos showing up at the end is totally WTF and I won't go there. I just took it in stride and ended up enjoying it. He's a simpleminded fellow and got a pretty simpleminded arc lol.