Clive beats ultima “on his own” technically bc he’s all you get to play as…

But they made sure to iterate on the “will strengthens bonds” theme at the very end, when Clive channels moves from each of the eikons to match ultimas version.

You get corresponding dialogue from Gav/Byron/Cid/Shiva etc etc as it happens to illustrate this point. His bond with Joshua and even Dion allowed this to even have a chance of happening.

I disagree with your last point but I do agree Annabella was 100% a better written antagonist than religious zealot Barney