[Sileni]

Where are you getting 8 from? Even being generous about what counts as a difference I'm counting 6.

I was already counting the "secret" ending. Two of the "choices" you can make without meeting the criteria are really the same ending with slightly different dialogue options. Mass Effect did not have multiple endings.

Side missions may have subtle differences but the entirety of the mission is in a vacuum; there's no difference between whether or not that trigger exists outside of that single event.

It led me to feel like a county fair more than a living world. "Next up, head to the torture booth! Ignore the wood scaffolding along the way".

[zaarn]

Then a lot of RGPs must feel like county fair to you if "you only get X endings". The ending mission certainly doesn't exist in a vacuum unless you deliberately look away from the choices you can make there. Personally, the only objection I have is that it railroads a bit, but that is understandable since it's the finale for the story, I've done that for TTRPGs campaigns too, when it came for their finale's.