Yeah, Zodiark definitely felt throwaway after 8 years of build 2013-2021. The way Ascians spoke about the "one true god" made it seem like there was a plan all along, but the writers had no plan on where it was all going. The build eventually lost momentum when that became clear, then they finally brought it back into focus and hurriedly concluded it in a way that felt like another routine boss disposal.

It's pretty hard for anything to rival the threat level of ARR's titanic primal Bahamut which scarred the land so deeply that maps had to be redrawn, and it would happen again if we allowed its body to be regenerated in the Coils. There are story reasons for why Zodiark and Hydaelyn are much weaker than they once were in legend, but it's still disappointing for Hyd - a primal so exceptional as to have created an artificial moon and intelligent lifeforms - to have a battle that's anything but exceptional. Total mismatch between what was expected and what we got.