What's the point with that quite lackluster story in Endwalker?

[KageTokage]

I think a lot of my disappointment was the result of the time travel in the MSQ. Any game I have played that decides to use time travel ends up going through contortions to resolve character interactions past, present and future. For me the end result is a bunch of loose ends that don't really seem to fit when tied together to close out the plot line. There are better ways for the protagonist and supporting characters to learn from the past without resorting to time travel and cheap plot devices.

I think one of things that bugs me is that even with the time travel, they still could've avoided most of the issues it ended up creating by just having Venat/Hydaelyn get her memories wiped too.

The causal loop dictated that our future would come to pass no matter what, so doing this would simply absolve her of having withheld the foreknowledge of the tragedies to come. The Sundering working to give us a fighting chance against Meteion could've been a happy coincidence and chance observation from the second coming of the Final Days instead of some grand plan, and she would still have Meteion's coordinates to give us had we simply reminded her about it. It would have made her whole arc more satisfying to me if she had caused the Sundering just because she thought stopping Zodiark and the sacrifices was a decision for the greater good simply in the moment, then grappled with the weight of that choice for countless millennia to finally see that an alternative to abandoning Etheriys to its fate had finally come to light thanks to the strength of man's will.

The only thing that would actually need to be changed is how we end up bringing up the matter of Elpis to Elidibus, since she wouldn't be able to use the flower to guide us to that key word. Perhaps we could've just had an Echo vision of Fandaniel pondering over the deeper meaning of his inherited memories from Hermes shortly after his transition to being an Ascian.

[Kyohei]

I think one of things that bugs me is that even with the time travel, they still could've avoided most of the issues it ended up creating by just having Venat/Hydaelyn get her memories wiped too.

The causal loop dictated that our future would come to pass no matter what, so doing this would simply absolve her of having withheld the foreknowledge of the tragedies to come. The Sundering working to give us a fighting chance against Meteion could've been a a happy coincidence instead of some grand plan, and she would still have Meteion's coordinates to give us had we simply reminded her about it.

The only thing that would actually need to be changed is how we end up bringing up the matter of Elpis to Elidibus, since she wouldn't be able to use the flower to guide us to that key word. Perhaps we could've just had an Echo vision of Fandaniel pondering over the deeper meaning of his inherited memories from Hermes shortly after his transition to being an Ascian.

Can't deny any of this but they wanted to push the that the WoL trusts Hydaelyn again and bond them to be to the same side once more. This was achieved through her giving the flower as guidance. A simple echo vision maybe could not have had the same impact of her being guide to hope for the characters (and a part of the playerbase).
Since a good part of players actually ended up liking Hydaelyn it wasn't such a bad choice, regardless of how we may find that it backfired on her depiction more than anything.

What I personally find strange is to use a close loop and advocate for a hope message at the same time. For me a close loop has a fatalistic connotation by nature because whatever you do, fate will no be changed.