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

[Rulakir]

Personally I draw a distinct line between a 'villain' and an 'antagonist'. To me, a villain is a character with little to no sympathetic qualities and no real goal in mind. As it happens, they usually have loftier stakes and more to lose because they don't have the same tiresome plot armour that the self proclaimed heroes of the story are clad in or an instant victory button to press whenever the story decides that they need to win through some contrived method. I've also played many games where a character such as Emet-Selch would be the protagonist of a story rather than the antagonist.

This. The unsundered Ascians are the heroes of their tale and of the Ancient world as a whole.

This is honestly a bit horrifying. Just based on how out of touch he has seemed when discussing aspects of the story in the past makes me dread what kind of story he would create if it was less about cohesion and fascinating characters and instead all about things that really interest just him.

Everything I've seen and heard from Yoshi-P he is the polar opposite of me, so perhaps I shouldn't be surprised that Azem has been irritatingly imbued with a similar personality. Some of his takes are atrociously bad. He doesn't understand why people could forgive Emet and not Hermes, really? He compares Venat to both Emet and Hermes, considered actual villains in the franchise, but then wants to communicate she's not a "bad guy"? I could go on, like his favorite character being Alphinaud and him crying incessantly over the Mothercrystal cutscene. I don't think we'd agree on anything in terms of story and characters.

I think the worst part is that everything to do with the Ancients is the foundation of the game's lore, but the implication is he wanted to be done with it because it's not interesting to him/the 'team'. First, that's a Hell of a thing to not be interested in exploring your own lore. Second, just because he doesn't want to doesn't mean players don't love it. The Ancients blow everything else out of the water in popularity polls. I understand to an extent in terms of not having a passion for it, but I'm personally not interested in playing just what Yoshi-P likes when we don't like the same things. I loved Maehiro's work in HW and Ishikawa when she has the creative freedom to do so. Can we not just let the writers do the jobs they're hired for and Yoshi-P stick to directing?

Loghrif is certainly still in there as we see.

Honestly, this bothers me a lot. Especially the beloved Seto scene with Ardbert, I couldn't help but think that these different personalities are in the 'sunken place' like in the movie Get Out. Still there and having to watch, but with no control. It's sort of similar to Steven Universe as well (which annoyingly nobody in this fandom seems to have seen). His persona is "surface", but his original incarnation still exists at his core and is simply being prohibited from returning as long as Steven is alive and essentially the dominant personality.

I've probably given this more thought than the writers have and, aside from the two examples in ShB, we don't see anyone else struggle with any sort of multiple personality disorder from rejoinings. It's possible I'm overthinking it and rejoinings are more like the Crystal Exarch & G'raha. Regardless, I do worry sundered personalities are suppressing the core, immortal soul to some extent.