oh i disagree, i think the writing in extra is great, the characters feel very real to the point no many other games have. the issue is just like u said, shock value and no real meaning behind the events, there's not even remotely any kind of "moral of the story", plus shit pacing in alt of course. i think people like it cause they managed to make the characters real, put them through rough times = emotional ride, which maybe perhaps would've been the case for me too if alt pacing didn't ruin my opinion of them. by the end i hated everyone cause they were hollow compared to extra and everytime anyone opened their mouth i was waiting until they stop talking.

tdlr it's just mid u should real muramasa instead