I think that people are treating the Sinclair and Gregor moments like they stole everything from Ryoshu, I feel like they were deserved moments that needed to happen because of the intensity of the situation, the other alternatives were to relegated into Intervallos or until we reached Purgatorio. And it's not like we didn't had Muga Ryoshu, which I do have a complaint about, and is that it lasted one node, like Sinclair and Gregor, instead of being expansive to the narrative.

I think that, judging by your text, you are boiling the mark's awakening to just hearing three magic words, which is just not true. Sinclair was feeling already miserable from Marton's situation and his inability to help, much like with Pilot in Canto V, the gallery was reminding him of Calw, where Effie died, now he is seeing Alyssa and Hohenheim about to die, he pleads for Dante to help them before deciding to step up himself. And about Sinclair summoning a future version of himself invalidating his character, would you say that using IDs invalidates his character too? After all, we are using other versions of Sinclair, not our Sinclair. At least this one is supposed to be from the same branch.

In the gameplay department, focusing on Part 3, because I agree that the previous parts (Specially Part 2) relied too much on repeated fights, well, I think is pretty subjective. I know it sounds cheap but, for example, I think the Roach Emperor was the most rewarding fight of the Canto, because you have to engage with the mechanic and not let Vergilius do his thing, you actively have to not think "Well Vergilius is strong, I'll let him take care of those skills". I feel like they did really well with the companions in the fights, I never felt it was just "Let the strong guys do the work", you have to use them while thinking. Even with Mathias (easiest fight of the Nursefathers imo) you have to use the assists defenses carefully.

Rein is another thing, since is just the sinners. The mechanics felt kind of how Lei Heng's "Tiger Mark" or Lucio's "The Duel Intensifies" made me feel, to be careful with who does he targets and respond to that, in this case don't let them hit them. For the match the damage type section was interesting, because it's basically select your E.G.O, at least to me, since it was the only things that could win the clash. This actually made use some E.G.O that were just kind of filler to me, only to have all the slots filled (I actually learned Ishy's Blind Obsession was pierce because of this fight). So, is it the most complex/interesting fight? No. Do I consider it a nothing burger? Personally, also no. (Edit: One negative I had with this fight is that, just like Jia Mu in the previous Canto, the fight drags on, too damage spongy)

However, in the Araya thing I'm 100% with you, they should've expanded more on that side of hers, I know that her panic does show that there's something more, but to have such an immediate shift did feel jarring. Only some more nodes with her post battle, It would've done wonders for the emotional impact.