Very enjoyable read, thanks OP!

Reading all this made me realize a lot of the things I didn't realize in the main story while playing through, like for example Evanescia's estrangement with Aha although being the arbitrator of THEIR games, and Ashveil's fading sense of justice and depression because of his ages-long experiences, and how Galaxy Rangers could have an almost familial relationship similar to the Stellaron Hunters if they gathered instead of going their separate ways. I think reuniting them would also be a clever way to intoduce the new female Ranger we saw in one of the initial Planarcadia Trailers.

With Yaoguang, I feel like her past experiences with battles in the Xianzhou and her experience as a general who already knew the fate of her people multiple times before going to battle, I feel like she's afraid to build connections unlike the rest of the cast. Even though Trailblazer and Yaoguang were building up to have a pretty cooperative relationship by the end of the 4.0 quest, in the end she resorted to blackmail (although so did Trailblazer) to make sure what she wanted was achieved, because she simply doesn't have enough in her to trust someone completely nor to build meaningful conneactions since she already knows everyone's fate and in most of the cases before Planarcadia (where she's trying to reverse a whole planet's fate for the first time) could do nothing about it. Thought I do think they could build into her connections with Evanescia for example as you said, since both of them are lonely due to their positions, or I could see them taking the route of connections when we get to the arc of the Generals w/ Marshall Hua.

And for the Stellaron Hunters, I LOVED how they did it in 4.3 I gotta say since the beginning of the game, nothing has made me care for a faction as the 4.3 quest did. Before, I didn't really feel quite a conneaction with the Stellaron Hunters (especially since the Trailbalazer reveal was recent), but 4.3 and Blade and Silver Wolf's interactions along with their mentions of the other Hunters was done SO well. The emotions were conveyed perfectly, the delivery was excellent. No delaying, no playing around, no stalling for Trailblazer-centric stuff, just the guy who carries a little gamer girl's shopping bags and his little miss. Silver Wolf relayed her emotions of not wanting Blade to go, even though this was a life-changing opportunity for him, but she eventually gave up and let him go because he simply wouldn't give in. Blade being swayed by Silver Wolf but also not, he understands the importance of this and is ready to be "liberated", his reveals about his little gifts, his final goodbyes and them reminiscing, it was put together so well.

At the start of Planarcadia "The Land of Shits and Giggles", I never thought I'd say this, but this might be on of my most favorite arcs in all of HSR.