FFXIV: "Yes, these people are lingering memories given form by Dynamis, but they're sentient, therefore should be considered real people worth helping.
Also FFXIV, somehow: "Yeah just delete all of these perfectly recorded memories that can experience existence again by being given bodies through aether lmao, they're not real anyway, none of them will even complain."

It's just bad writing, period. Hiroi did not play the game he's "writing"(ruining) for, and it shows.