That's debatable. There's actually quite a few characters you can kill off in the Corruption path, just to gain more corruption. So far, choosing not to kill some of the characters seem to make a difference. Sparing Danica makes it possible to succeed in the B rank Hunt, and earns you Danica affection. Historically if you can build Affection on a girl, then there will eventually be H-scenes with her. Sparing Jake seems to make it possible for Mia to fully regain her memories at the Bonfire event. Not killing Christie is mandatory to avoid a Dead End. Not killing Demi keeps her path open & is required for the Clover Demi H-scene, Sparing Clover (from Death or jail) grants +2 Demi affection & is required for the Clover Demi H-scene. It's speculative, but I would not be surprised if saving Laurie, a superhuman with CC abilities, and special requirements to save, winds up paying dividends in the long run. Not unlike beating Valravn without Brianna's help.
You can beat the Gorgon without Danica, Deryl takes her place.
You can give Mia her memories back without Jake, MC uses the consumed memories.
Even if you kill Danica, it's possible to get a scene, although it's a dream sequence.
There is an indication that Bailey will make a reappearence in the future, despite MC eating her.
So generally even if you kill certain characters, the game finds a way to replace their content with something interesting, depending on how they die. It's not necessary that keeping them alive will give you better content.
Additionally the Eye forewarns that MC will not attain the heights of power if he doesn't consume. Being powerful & corrupted could be a good end, despite not being "morally good".
In any case, despite some new content, characters that can die get significantly less content than those who can't. Angelina and Demi had as much content as Liz, Amber and Emily before HERO, and they are superhumans, however their content is minimal compared to the latter 3 after HERO.
Lastly, it's not really debatable and I don't make a case for letting her die. There are many people in this forum that didn't care about Laurie at all before WW patched the game to allow for the 100 power check. Between Aglaecwif and Laurie, Laurie generally did not measure very well. Lastly, if you don't follow a walkthrough or haven't played the game multiple times, good luck saving Laurie. It's unlikely to happen.
What you're saying is purely speculation. There are other points in the game, particularly on Corruption path, where you get a Dead End, but also a lot of interesting lore. I'm referring to the early Ella fight where you actually beat her and you encounter the monster that turned you into a Superhuman, and then an Unknown entity kills it, surprising even Ella. The other case is the Lvl 3 evolution, where it's possible to ask the Eye entity a question, get denied, then say Yes, then die and come back for a lot of interesting lore. In both cases, there's no payoff to unlocking it (aside from the exclusive Ella sex scene), because you obviously die shortly after, but it's the only way to get that lore.
Anything that was speculation on my part was mentioned as speculation. For the rest of your point I'm not really sure what are you answering to. All I'm saying is that if you don't meet Aglaecwif while possessing the eye, it's probable that it will become relevant at a next meeting, giving you a bigger reward than what you'd get the first time.
Overall, I think the rewards for keeping certain characters alive and getting the best ending from fights has a bigger payoff than collecting lore. And it will probably continue to have a greater payoff moving forward. So far, the game has snowballed the effects of good choices even from early game (like the 1st Michael fight). Those small advantages and choices wind up making a difference in fight outcomes. I would not be surprised if the story's true ending, depends on getting ideal outcomes and requires meeting very demanding stat cutoffs.
This premise is very biased. You claim that the good effects snowball but this never happens in the game.
1) Why would you even categorize the Michael fight as good or bad choice? Power vs Skill is not an ethical dilemma in any shape or form.
2) You lose many opportunities for power if you don't make criminal decisions. A perfectly ethical MC will end up having notably less power than a criminal one.
3) The only stat that snowballs is corruption, because it's possible to get locked out of corruption if you don't have enough of it, and corruption gates by far the most content and has the most conditional checks.
