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

[Theodric]

It's also rather unprecedented. Stormblood received a mixed reaction though the development team didn't feel compelled to hastily put together an extra Live Letter to offer 'clarification' in relation to the narrative. It's particularly odd given that they spent all of Shadowbringers insisting throughout various interviews that everything was a 'matter of perspective' and whether a character was 'good' or 'evil' was entirely open to player interpretation.

It's strange to me that they feel compelled to try and influence the player's opinion of Venat. Nobody's obligated to like or agree with her even if our characters are hijacked and forced to do so.

Which, incidentally, extends to my criticism of other aspects of the story. There's an almost desperation to keep certain characters front and centre instead of clearing the board somewhat and allowing newer, fresher characters to breathe.

I do find it amusing, at least, to see people try and dismiss criticism on the basis of something being 'popular'. If only because to me it should be pretty obvious that popularity does not equal greatness outright. I take it about as seriously as I do whenever the marketing department advertises this game as having '25 millions players' and 'bestest community ever'.