Hm. Perhaps whether or not one likes Edelgard hinges a bit on whether or not you see the story saying her inability to improve as a person without Byleth is either a core aspect of her character or a flaw in the writing of the game.

Like, the Edelgard who can only let one person in is a very different person compared to the Edelgard who could let several people in. The same can also apply to Dimitri in Azure Moon, I have heard a similar complaint from this angle as well.

Or how Claude’s plan to manipulate the Church of Seiros hinges on Byleth being on his side, and how he seems to have relatively limited back-up plans.

Like, heck, how much you enjoy the game’s writing in general can depend on how you interpret the dependency on Byleth to move the plot forward. This can also apply to FE: Fates and FE:A.

I have talked about this before, but I had a conversation with someone recently and my train of thought has returned to this issue again.