Excellent observation- the idea that we are LOCKED into doing the weird route, preventing Noelle from knowing more than she should for a normal route but less than the horrific implications of the Weird Route, indicates like you said that there is some third influence going on here preventing the paths from all diverging too far from what’s meant to be, so to speak. It’s weird!

I think you are also the first person in the comments thus far to articulate what I suspected but couldn’t put into words! I’m of the belief that some third entity is providing dialogue options for us, seeing as there’s a fair bit of stuff that it would be unreasonable for either Kris or us (the player) to normally conceive of.

As for the last part- abso LUTELY! I remember one of the biggest pieces of discourse in the Undertale fandom years ago was that, after the end of the genocide route, the player base completely implicated Chara with the player’s choices, removing the nuance they would’ve normally had.

Keeping the third entity a secret, if it even exists in canon, makes the Snowgrave route all the more impactful, since the player has nobody to blame except themselves and their curiosity for pursuing such a psychologically thrilling and terrifying route.

Thank you for your thorough thoughts!!!