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

[CrownySuccubus]

I mean, sure, it's definitely a possibility. How's Hermes to know that information though? That dude is just another scientist. Emet and Hythlodaeus are already familiar with Elpis so it's not too hard to imagine that they became desensitized to these sort of things. Are the guys sacrificing non-Ancient lifeforms truly morally gray though? I'd do the same if it meant saving the entire civilization.

Again, I'm saying that the story presents as morally-grey. Like I said about the butterflies, it comes across as weird that our WOL is stated to be "shocked" by their callous attitude towards death. And this comes up again when they are explaining to the WOL about the concept of returning to the star. Hyth and Emet treat it like it's no big deal, Hermes becomes depressed about it, and Venat dodges the question when one of her fellow Ancients asks about when she'll finally do it, and then tells you that she probably never will. We're also told that returning to the star when one's purpose is fulfilled is seen as normal by the Ancients, and a choice to be celebrated. They said this applies to their society as a whole, not just scientists.

It's not unique to social media, though the world is a big place and not everybody is interested in entertaining the demands of those who ordinarily would never even interact with them in any way, shape or form if not for the presence of social media.

People have always cared about the scrutiny of other people, even if they never met them. As I stated, the fact that things such as the Cult of Domesticity, the Victorian Age moral system and other things exist demonstrates that people don't need to directly interact with other people to form opinions.

Also, Hermes wasn't always a scientist. Ancients clearly have children and live in more residential areas.