To me, the Endless are the equivalent to AI chatbots that we see today. They're not actually real people despite how much they act like it, they're just recreations based on memories. The man meeting in love after death did not truly happen because their lives did not continue on after death in the living memory, it's just a recreation based on their memories to create a what-if. Also notice that none of the Endless seem to plea with you to not shut them down, even the ones that linger on with unfinished business. It's like they know they're life has long since ended and some even encourage you to shut them down or help them with their final desire so they can disappear. The only exception is Sphene, where her created purpose was to keep the Endless going. It's even said that the real Sphene likely would of never wanted any of this.

Keep in mind of the consequences of what would happen if we didn't stop Sphene. The Endless need the souls of the living to continue to exist, and for every soul taken Sphene thinks she's doing them a service by turning them into an Endless as well. It's an exponentially increasing problem that will require more and more souls to sustain. Even though Zoraal Ja lead the attack on Tuliyollal, Sphere was completely complicit in it. And it's not like we did not try to reason with her. We really did, but she absolutely refused to negotiate. Even in her final moments when Wuk Lamat was calling out to her, she did not give in.