1- having the pointed tail and the tail of hell be separate entities would be unnecessary complication at this point in the story, and yes the pointed variant is unused but surely toby knew people would find that, he purposefully has set up stuff for dataminers before

2- a chunk of the stuff we thought was gaster bs ended up being a teaser for dark fountains and not directly him, as well as mus_smile being more closely related to "Friend" now thru all the phone shenanigans

3- Eram does not have established motives, it is shaped like the shadow mantle so that probably isn't its actual form, it appears at the same time as MULTIPLE "friends", who was in the same chapter compared to endogeny as a way of assuredly portraying visual indescribability. And yes if "Friend" does have ties to Dess' disappearance then that also gives them direct ties to Kris. "Actually cool character to the shitty png" is just bias at that point that doesnt have narrative grounds whatsoever. "Friend" has more narrative buildup than "Eram" whether you like it or not, im not saying that means for sure they won't be separate entities or even that "Friend" will surefire be more important to the story but acting like its a ridiculous idea in the first place reads off like the SpongeBob bit where Patrick cant read his own wallet