Chances are a lot of plot confusion came from them repurposing the plot of versus XIII. Lucis especially felt more like a leftover from the original game that was contractually obligated to be in the game because he was prominent in the few trailers we ever got of the old game. I imagine Ardyn's backstory was also something in the original script that carried over, but the new team wasn't sure what to do with in regards to all the other changes.

I'm glad you liked it though. I was fairly pleased with it despite all the problems, and I've only played the Day 1 vanilla version and none of the DLC, so I'm sure it's a huge improvement over that. The bro trip part is certainly the highlight of the game for me. I feel like the theme of the FNC was to deconstruct the old Crystal theme of the early series by making the crystals/Light gods, just as much of a dick as the bad guys.