I mean I would have voted otherwise because I like the smt tone more, but then I realized.
"Wait a moment we are on a very tight schedule, there is more than enough grimdark coming like a avalanche, and not nearly enough time for this deterministic qm that makes optimization programs with linear solvers to not suddenly decide when we're handholding a(nother) damaged murderous little girl "times up, here come the septentriones."".
I'm not too chuffed on missing out on story xp, but I'm not too bothered because I'm 90% sure opportunity costs are a thing in this quest. I'm worried that too much of this avoidance might disqualify the Exaltation, but eeeh, I doubt it.
It does come to mind that devil survivor\persona more complex routes require a lot of time juggling of fragile npc egos and we might be locking ourselves out of some kind of "golden ending" but I think that if it actually is planned only will become actively tracked during the apocalypses.