i never did a genocide in shrift 1 never really killed anyone since at the very start the first enemy you fight leaves so that made me think you can make them all stop fighting
Not everyone. I got neutral end in the first run (or something like that). I just killed Arachne and i regret nothing.
Been forced to forgive every demon to get access to late content seems pretty forced. But i spared most of demons yeah.
I went True Mercy from the first, although that's generally because I usually first play to unlock all Scenes, and True Mercy's how you get all the Demons.
But if you didn't have some Meta Knowledge of the game's routes, or paid attention to your Save's name (to see when you stray from True Mercy), you might still miss it When it Involves its first Meta-Mechanic (not seeing it and playing normally, without reloading previous Chapters at all, will always result in Neutral at best).