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

[Brinne]

Mm, this is my understanding of it:

- The Echo is a remnant of Ancient powers, and awakens when a strong memory is triggered of their lives as an Ancient/the Final Days in particular. This is why Elidibus used the meteor showers in 5.2 and 5.3 to prompt a mass-awakening of the Echo to create Warriors of Light.

- Only people with the awakened Echo can hear Hydaelyn's voice.

- Hydaelyn has an automated message constantly on loop, so her voice is the first thing anyone who awakens to the Echo hears. She also, perhaps, instant-slaps the Blessing of Light on them.

- In-universe scholars, because the two are conflated so closely, attribute the Echo as originating from Hydaelyn as well - missing the fact that what actually triggers it are "meteor showers," with Hydaelyn instead being a force jumping in on an opportunity created by an awakening she doesn't actually have anything to do with.

- If the Echo is Hydaelyn's gift, no need to look further in and potentially discover it's actually because we're fragmented pieces of an ancient civilization that Hydaelyn destroyed, and the automated message + automated Blessing ensures that anyone who awakens the Echo is at least inclined from the start toward the path of being a warrior of light. Two birds with one stone! Venat is very efficient.