Vanille hides information because she' arguably the reason the characters are suffering so much. Hope watched his mother die in front of him because of Snow's overly-hazardous heroics. Lightning (maybe) encouraged him because she was still reeling from the anger of blaming him for what happened to Serah, while time (as in real life) dulled that emotion and led to more sober advice.

You still haven't established that it's bad writing without ignoring obvious plot points ("because reasons") or doing so while throwing around insults ("any moron could see"). XIII had fun combat, great presentation, and a story you more or less expect from Square at this point. If we put the same microscope you're using on XIII over the games you like, I'm sure we could bring them down to just as low a level.

Would you disagree?