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

[Teraq]

They seemed to be trying way too hard to be deep at the cost of character and narrative integrity.

"Wow, you guys are paying close attention to this game." -YoshiP, Feb 2022 Q&A, on the question relating to remaining Sundered Ascians and whose masks Gaius had on his belt.

I wonder if YoshiP knows the reason why people had assumed a lion-shaped Ascian mask would become significant in Endwalker...